Aiding and Abetting
by Stratusfied247
Summary: What if Carly and Lorenzo had helped Jason and Sam escape when Sam was suspected of kidnapping Kristina? In the end, is Carly doing this just to help Jason... or is there some part of her that feels akin to Sam? [CarLo, JaSam]
1. Chapter 1

**_Author's Notes: This story starts after Jason rescues Sam, when they took her back to Sonny's house to "relive" everything that had happened when Kristina was taken. From the point after Agent Marshall shoots Jason, everything is different than the way it actually happened on the show. This is just my take on what could have happened. I'm messing with a lot of things, including Sonny's erratic behavior and the Carly/Courtney friendship. This story mainly revolves around the interactions of two couples: Jason & Sam and Carly & Lorenzo as they try to find out who the real kidnapper is and clear Sam's name. Also, be advised that as I have many stories going, this one may not be updated every single day. However, I will attempt to update at least once a week._**

**_Enjoy the story _**

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In all her years of knowing Sonny Corinthos, she'd known he was a volatile man. More often than she cared to recall, he'd turned that anger upon her. However, the look in his eyes at that particular moment, made even Carly Corinthos stiffen and all but sprint for the exit. Fear and more than her share of curiosity held her in place.

She wanted to say something, but she didn't want to be the first to speak. While Carly always had to have the last word, she could do without having the first, more often than not. Especially when the first words could be the difference between a regular argument with Sonny and the finally snap that sent him into the darkness that he always claimed to be afraid that he would fall into it.

Carly knew that she should have left. She knew that she should have made a beeline for the exit the second that Sonny turned those eyes on her. No matter who spoke first, she was pretty sure that she wasn't going to like the outcome. She may have been divorced, but she still went by the name of Corinthos. If she stayed much longer, she was going to have to go back to Benson, because just the mention of the last name would make her flinch.

There was more to it than that, though. There were other things that needed her attention. Other people who needed her. For the first time, her major motivations weren't completely selfish. She was actually thinking of someone else this time, someone that she hadn't even liked until recently. And in truth, she wasn't all that sure that she liked her now. But, that didn't mean that she was heartless. It didn't mean that she had no compassion, and that she would let someone get railroaded. Especially since the situation started because Carly had found it necessary to open her mouth before taking in all the intricate details.

"You know where they are."

Sonny's voice pierced the silence and Carly jumped. It felt like the world had been stopped, then suddenly started to life. Like when the power went out with the radio on. Everything was calm and silent for what felt like an eternity, but then the electricity returned and everything that was previously turned on came back to life with startling intensity.

"What have you done, Carly?"

What had she done? She'd helped a friend. Not Samantha McCall. No matter what the woman went through, how much sympathy she had for her, Carly knew that if it were just Sam involved, she probably wouldn't have done anything. No, Jason Morgan was the one that had her in the middle of this mess. It had been Jason's insistence that Sam was innocent, his belief in the diminuitive brunette, that had pushed Carly into action.

"I haven't done anything," she said, her voice soft. Her body was rigid and tight. She was afraid, and Carly wasn't used to be scared of anything. At least not physically scared. She had been afraid for her children before, and she'd been afraid for those around her, but staring into Sonny's cold, pitiless eyes, she was afraid of him. Of what he might say and more important, what he might do.

"Don't you lie to me!" His fist came down hard on the desk and Carly jumped. It wasn't the first outburst she'd seen from Sonny, and considering the situation, it wouldn't be the last. She wished it could be, though. "You helped them. Are you still that mad about Alexis and me that you'll let our daughter go off with Sam?"

"Oh, now you're just being…" She stopped herself before she could finish the sentence. Calling Sonny stupid wasn't going to get them anywhere. Carly sighed and shook her head. "Do you really think Jason would go off with Sam if he thought she had kidnapped Kristina?"

"He's blinded by love! He doesn't know what he's doing!" He went still for a second. Sonny's appearance was haggard. The bags beneath his eyes were growing and soon, they would hang halfway down his cheeks. His hair was a mess of loose curls. Two days worth of unshaven hair crept over his sienna features. His clothes were wrinkled. Unkempt was just too soft of a word to describe him. He was a complete and total wreck.

"You're the one that first said that Sam could have had something to do with this, Carly. You're the one that said she had the most reason to take Kristina."

If she were ever going to admit that she was wrong, this would have been the perfect time. However, Carly rarely admitted her flaws, and with Sonny looking like he wanted to ring her neck, she wasn't about to let this be one of those rare moments. "Think about it, Sonny. If she had Kristina, would she have come back here? Wouldn't she be long gone from here? You're looking for the wrong person. You need to be looking for whoever really took Kristina."

"Listen to yourself, Carly! You sound as crazy as she is!" He shook his head, then ran his hand over his face. His voice lowered and Carly was grateful. He took a few steps towards her and the gratitude was gone. "You don't even like her, but you're buying into this delusion of hers. Why? Because of Jason? Both of you are too close to this to see the truth. You're too close to Jason to realize that he's been conned."

"You know what, Sonny? I'm not Sam's biggest supporter, but I am Jason's. I trust him and I believe him. Ya know, I remember when you did, too. Jason's been nothing but loyal to you. And no matter how much he loves Sam…" She paused and held back the grimace that wanted to crunch her face. That she could actually admit that Jason loved Sam made her feel dirty, somehow. "No matter how much he loves her, he's not stupid, Sonny. If he thought she had taken Kristina, he would be getting Sam to return her, not running with her."

Sonny was quiet and she hoped that he believed her, that he saw the truth in her words. However, it became apparent that he wasn't even really listening to her when he asked, "Who helped you? I know you had something to do with this, but you couldn't have done it on your own."

Carly had no idea how Sonny had found out that she was involved, and she didn't ask him. Not like he'd tell her, anyway. Sonny had always been one to demand explanations from others, but refused to give any himself. He seemed to think that he was beyond reproach, that no one had any right to question him. Yet, he could question others with as much force as necessary to gain a response. The current line of questioning, should she continue to evade his hammering question, could prove the truth in that line of reasoning.

If Sonny was upset that she'd been involved in the escape of Sam and Jason, he'd be even more upset that her accomplice had been Lorenzo Alcazar. It had become painfully obvious to Carly that Sonny wasn't going to see reason, that he would let Sam hang for something she didn't know. He wouldn't listen to anyone, he wouldn't see beyond what he wanted to believe, but Lorenzo…

Part of her felt bad about bringing him into this whole thing. She didn't want him to think that she was using him. That wasn't it at all. She trusted Lorenzo, and she knew that he had faith in her. He and Jason were no more friends than she and Sam. In fact, they were even less. They were borderline enemies. However, Carly believed in Sam's innocence and because of that, so did Lorenzo. She trusted him in the same way that she trusted Jason, making Lorenzo one of only two people whose hands she would lay her life in. Neither of those two people were her ex-husband.

"I'm not getting into this with you, Sonny." Carly forced herself to move forward. Though, instead of walking directly towards Sonny, she moved around the sofa, going for a more outward route. "I've got things to do."

"You're not going anywhere." He moved quickly to the side and caught her before she could get to the door. Sonny grabbed her arms, just above the wrists and held her in place. "You're not leaving until you tell me what's going on. It was Alcazar, wasn't it? Did all of you get together to torture me? All of you decided to steal my daughter to make me crazy?"

"You're being paranoid, Sonny." She jerked her body backwards, but he didn't release her. "Let me go, Sonny." His grip tightened and her voice rose. "Let me go!"

"Not until you tell me what's going on! Where did Alcazar put them?"

"Do you really think I'd tell you anything! You let Agent Marshall shoot Jason! He's always loved you like a brother and you're turning on him!" She jerked her body back more. "You're hurting me! Let me go!"

"Not until you tell me!"

Carly closed her eyes. She didn't want to hurt him. She knew he was just afraid, and though she loved another man, she didn't want to actually, physically hurt Sonny. However, he continued to refuse to let her go, and she couldn't stand there, waiting for him to hit her. With much regret, she reared back and kicked out. Her leg hit him square between the legs. In shock, pain and surprise, he let her go and Carly ran out of the house as fast as she could.

It had finally happened. Sonny had cracked. For him to be so distrustful of Jason, there was no other excuse. For him to be so far gone that she actually thought he would hurt her… Carly knew that Sonny was gone and he wouldn't be back until Kristina was returned. That meant that Carly had to get to Lorenzo fast… and that they all had to hurry and find Kristina even faster.


	2. Chapter 2

Carly was hesitant as she stepped onto the yacht. This was where her life had been forever changed, and at one time, she'd sworn to herself that she would never step foot aboard the luxury ship, again. However, in her life, things didn't always go according to plan. Actually, they never went according to plan, so it really wasn't anything new.

The guards that had once been posted to keep her confined now parted like butter on the sides of a warm knife that sliced it down the middle. She moved carefully past them, still slightly unnerved by the eyes that watched her. On the way out to the yacht, floating just outside of the jurisdiction of the PCPD, Carly's head had been covered. As she walked further onto the yacht, moving to the stairs that led to the lower decks, she slid the dark shawl from her head and wrapped it tighter around her body. If the air on shore had been chilly, the air on the yacht was absolutely freezing. She was grateful to finally be within the heated interior of the ship's walls, her body starting to warm.

There were more guards, men she didn't recognize, and something hit Carly like a slap to the side of the head. The kind that said, "How could you be so stupid?" Lorenzo had told her that he was giving up his illegal operations within the United States during her custody battle with Sonny. At the time, she'd heard what she wanted to hear. In the present, though, surrounded by men she'd never seen before, men with expensive suits trying to hide the bulges at their sides and backs, she knew that he'd still held onto his interests elsewhere. In fact, it was entirely possible that he had long since taken back his territory in the States and she hadn't even known.

She also realized, as she stopped outside the door, that she didn't really care all that much. In the end, Lorenzo relinquishing his businesses hadn't swayed any jury. The only thing that had accomplished was to put him at risk. Besides, had he truly given it all up, he might not have had the resources that were suddenly so valuable. Oh, he'd have still held the yacht. Part of her thought that it meant too much to him to ever give up. It was too much like his brother's, or so he had once mentioned. No, the transportation would be available, but the destination may not have been. If he cut all of his ties, he might not have had a welcoming port to dock them in. He might not have had anywhere to take them.

Carly reached her immediate destination and again, guards parted the way for her. She pushed the door open slightly and peered inside. Jason was lying on the bed, and over the distance, he didn't seem to be conscious. He had been lying on this yacht for two days, resting as Lorenzo's medical personnel prepared him for their journey. Though the harbor and the Atlantic weren't frozen over, the air was cold enough that the trip would be choppy. The patch-up job on Jason was just meant to sustain a trip down the Eastern seaboard to a state where Lorenzo had "friends." From there, once Jason was more securely patched, they would fly down to Venezuela.

Sam stood on the other side of the room, her arms folded tightly and tucked beneath her breasts. She looked like a thief in the night, clothed in black jeans and shirt. Her jacket was on the foot of Jason's bed. She stood across from Lorenzo, equally dressed in what had become his usual black attire. Part of Carly wanted to be jealous. Logically, she knew that there was nothing there. Lorenzo and Sam didn't even really like one another. But, then again, when had Carly Benson Quartermaine Corinthos ever relied on logic? To her inner bitch, she just saw another woman talking to her man, and that wasn't good.

Then, logic and reason hit her again. Even if she still thought of the Sam as the little tramp that had wrecked a marriage that was already wrecked beyond belief, she wouldn't have been flirting with Lorenzo with Jason right there. She wasn't a Sam supporter, nor was she a believer in the intentions of other women, but she knew that Sam was in love with Jason. She knew that Sam wouldn't break his heart. She would stand beside him just as he stood beside her, now. Or laid beside her, as the case may be.

Carly sighed and shook her head. She couldn't stand there forever. There were still things that she had to do. Something that she'd intended to do in the first place, but was sidetracked by fear. "We can't cast off, yet," she said, pushing herself through the door. She looked at Lorenzo with wide, almost vacant eyes. "We can't leave, yet."

"Carly?" His brow furrowed and he crossed to her. She was visibly upset, practically on the verge of shock. Lorenzo reached out to her, his hands landing on each of her arms. He rubbed her arms for a few seconds just above the elbow, then ran his hands up her arms. He passed over her shoulders, then finally stopped at her face. His hands pressed her hair against her neck. "What happened? Didn't you get the boys?"

"I…" She swallowed and tried to pull herself together. "I went there, but Sonny… He knows, and I don't know how he knows, but he knows that we helped Jason and Sam get away from his house. He, um…" She looked down and then, with Lorenzo touching her, she suddenly felt the dull ache in her forearms. She didn't know if it were the heat seeping in that did it, or Lorenzo's gentle touch, so different from Sonny's. "He got real mad."

"What did he do?" Sam rushed forward, but she stopped just short of Carly. Jason was echoing her sentiment and trying to rise from the bed. He'd apparently been more aware than Carly first thought. Sam tried her best to push Jason back to the bed, and only his physical weakness allowed her to succeed. As she held Jason to the bed, she looked at Carly. "What did he do to you?" Sam was visibly upset, seething and speaking through clenched teeth. "Did he hit you?"

Carly didn't know whether to be offended or proud, and it was the latter that struck her as strange. The part of her that still wanted to claim loyalty to her ex-husband was angry that Sam would automatically assume he'd done something. And yet, the greater part was glad that this whole thing had opened Sam's eyes to Sonny as much as it had opened her own. She had felt sympathy and somewhat of a kinship with Sam over the loss of her baby, but now, she felt… pride. As though they were comrades in the same situation who saw the truth as it was meant to be seen.

Carly shook her head. "He just… he grabbed me." She stepped back and took off her long, brown coat. It fell to the floor. Slowly, staring at her arms, she pulled up the sleeves of a tight, burgundy sweater. A few inches above her wrists, the skin was mottled with purple bruising. "He grabbed me and…"

She was cut off as Lorenzo started to speak in Spanish, his words rapid and his voice low and menacing. And yet, she wasn't afraid as she had been with Sonny. Somewhere deep inside, she'd always been waiting for the day that Sonny struck out at her, or any other woman for that matter. He'd come close so many times, but she had always thought that there would be a point where he lost control and "turned into Deke" as he was so quick to say. Tonight, he'd come very close. He might have made the full transformation had she not gotten away.

But, Lorenzo… There was no inner voice, no soft but urgent warnings that she needed to get away. His anger wasn't directed at her, and she wasn't in any danger. With Sonny, he could strike out no matter where his rage was pointed, but Lorenzo wouldn't do that. He would hold his temper until he could exact revenge where it was truly deserved.

"Carly…" Jason's voice was strained. He still tried to fight Sam, but she held him too tightly. "Show me," he said.

"Jase…"

"Show me!" Though his voice was weak, he still managed to be commanding. She walked to him slowly and, with shame, pushed her arms out towards him. Sam released his shoulders and slowly Jason rose his arm. He touched her bruises tentatively then, surprisingly, tears began to leak silently out of his eyes. "This is my fault," he whispered.

"No, Jase. It's not…"

"It is," he said firmly. "I left you with him. He was supposed to take care of you and now…" He shook his head and slumped into the bed. The pillows rose on either side of his head, a fluffy and light backdrop for such a pained and sorrowful portrait. "He'll pay for this, Carly, I swear. Sonny… I never thought he'd go too far, but he has. He came close, but now, he's crossed a line."

"Jason, you should rest," Sam said softly. She turned to Carly, and it was plain that she was in no shape to discuss the matter anymore than Jason. "Please, okay?" Her own tears were falling, some for Jason, many for the kidnapped little girl that her own dead child had saved, but a few left over for Carly. Sam had been beaten before. Hell, the punch to the eye she'd gotten from Nico was nothing compared to what she'd gotten in the past. She could handle it. But, she got the idea that Carly wasn't used to this kind of thing and she didn't know how to handle it.

Sighing, she turned back to Jason. "Go to sleep, okay? We'll get the boys, and then we'll leave."

"I have to look for Kristina… to clear your name."

"Right now, all you've got to do is get strong." Sam bent down and kissed him lightly on the lips. She brushed her fingertips along his cheek and sighed. "Just rest, alright?"

As Sam urged Jason to sleep, Carly turned towards Lorenzo. He was speaking low to one of the guards, and even though she couldn't decipher every Spanish word that leaked to her ears, she knew enough from the minimal amount she had learned and his demeanor that he was plotting something. More than likely, he was plotting the same thing that Jason wanted.

"Lorenzo…" He didn't answer her and she went to him, her eyes leaking. She grabbed his arm and jerked. Catching him by surprise, she was able to spin him around. His burning glare was almost enough to make her back up, but she held her ground. "Don't do this, Lorenzo. Not… This isn't the time. We have to think about Jason. We have to get him and Sam out of the country and… I've got to get the boys."

"He deserves to die for what he's done to you."

"He didn't do anything, Lorenzo. He just grabbed me. And I'm not going to make excuses for him, I swear. But right now, I can't care about Sonny. I've got to get my boys."

"Carly…"

"Please, Lorenzo."

He looked at her steadily for a few beats then sighed. "For now," he told her. At some point, Sonny Corinthos would pay for what he had done. Angry over the loss of his daughter or not, he had no right to lay his hands on Carly, or anyone else for that matter. "I'll send two guards with you to get the boys."

"That's just going to make things worse. Maybe I can get Courtney…" She stopped and laughed bitterly. "Yeah, right. Her own neice is missing and where is she? Off using it as an excuse not to get married. Not like I want her to marry Jax, but the way she's been acting, I really think they deserve each other sometimes." She sighed. "But, Courtney's not the point. Michael and Morgan are. If this is some kind of thing against Sonny, then my boys are in danger. I can't let them stay with Sonny. He said they would be safer there. He beefed up the guards and got the system rushed, but… I just can't leave them there."

"I'll go with you." Sam stepped up. "And don't tell me that it defeats the purpose of running, or any of that. You and Jason put yourselves on the line for me and I can't just let that go." She sighed and her shoulders dropped. "I can sneak you in." Carly looked at her with a raised eyebrow and Sam said, "What? I got in to get the money, didn't I? Sonny doesn't know how I got on the property, so he won't have fixed it."

"Sam…" Carly was hesitant. It wasn't that she didn't trust her. She was ready to return the favor they'd given her, ready to risk being caught to help her get her children. But, she didn't want Jason's shooting to be for nothing. She didn't want this all to be for nothing. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Just…" She looked past Lorenzo and sighed. "I know you barely like me and you don't like Jason at all. You two have this history, I know, and there's all of this stuff there…" She shook her head. "But, can you please make sure he's okay?" Lorenzo didn't speak, but he nodded, his eyes floating from Sam to Carly and finally resting on Jason. He nodded once more, firmly, and Sam turned to Carly. "So, that's taken care of. Now, let's go get your boys."


	3. Chapter 3

Carly wasn't sure she was ever especially close with Courtney Matthews. Something in the honest portion of her heart told her she really didn't have much in common with the broad blonde. Something she did know for sure, however, never EVER had she ever demanded so much of Courtney, never was her complete and utter safety in the the palm of her hands. The fact that she was putting more trust in Sam McCall than she had in her 'best' friend spoke volumes. As did the tremble in her hand as she reached out for the door knob. She was so close to her boys. So close to grabbing them and getting out of the house once and for all.

"Carly…" Sam's whisper was harsh and Carly's head instinctively snapped around to glare at her. Just because she trusted her didn't mean she particularly liked being there with her looking over her shoulder. It just felt… wrong. "Carly, hurry up. We don't have long, and you know Michael's gonna put up a fuss."

She hated to admit it, but Sam was right. Shit! Michael didn't like Lorenzo. He didn't like Sam. He would complain and cause a scene, and that would bring guards upstairs. They were lucky enough that no one had seen them sneak upstairs. The two had snuck in through a hole in the fencing that curled up and around from the ground. From there, it had been a tromp through the snow, over the patio wall, then inside the glass doors on tiptoe to the stairs. The ladder Sam had used to get in previously had long since been discarded and both women doubted there would be another around, any time soon.

The alarm hadn't been a problem. Apparently, it slipped Sonny's mind that Jason still knew the codes, and he had given them to Sam before falling asleep. Though, they could still be caught. They had only snuck inside the house when they saw Sonny go off into the foyer with Agent Marshall. The coast had been clear for a while, but there was no guarantee it would be clear on the way out, if they could get Michael.

"I think maybe I should have gone to Luke to do this," Carly admitted. The words were as bitter for her to speak as trusting Sam had been to swallow. "We hate each other's guts, always have, but… He's better at this sneaking thing."

"Well, we didn't get Luke, so it's up to us." Sam sighed. "Go in and get Michael, and I'll stand watch. If Sonny comes up…" She shrugged. "I'll distract him."

"You'll go to jail."

"Maybe." She shrugged again. "Or maybe I'll just cause enough noise for you to get out of here. That was the initial plan, wasn't it?"

It was a plan, and it was one that would have worked, but Carly had nixed that before they even got to the house. Jason would never forgive her if she let Sam sacrifice herself. More than that, Carly didn't personally feel right about it. Everybody else was doing the sacrificing. They were the ones who were getting Sam out of trouble, not the other way around. Everything they'd been through would be for naught if Sam ended up in the can.

"Just make sure it doesn't come to that, alright?" Carly sighed and slowly began to turn the knob. As she grew closer and closer to the door opening, Carly found herself thinking more and more about her companion, her current partner-in-crime. This really was the sort of thing that Courtney should have been taking part in. After all that Carly had done for her, Courtney owed her that much. Between dumping her car, hiding her short-lived addiction, and forgiving her for momentarily trying to steal her baby, the least Courtney could do was be there when she needed her.

Truthfully, she couldn't think of one single time that Courtney had called to check up on her during the whole mess. Sure, the missing child wasn't hers, but Kristina was Sonny's child. Even if Courtney didn't call her, she should have been there more for Sonny. But, no. Courtney was too busy playing happy fiancee to Jasper Jacks. She was there to go to the baby's funeral, and she'd been there when Lila Quartermaine had passed, even though she'd done nothing worthwhile for that family. Hell, she'd even had the gaul to show up at AJ's future. And Courtney was johnny-on-the-spot to take Hope away from Jason and Sam. But when her support was actually needed, where was she? Off with Jax. And if Carly had called her? Well, she probably would have either told her not to go ahead with it, not to get involved, or she would have run blabbing her big mouth to Sonny. Either way, it wasn't helpful. Right then, Courtney was useless. Sam McCall, however, wasn't.

"Jesus, Carly, if you don't go in there and get the boys, I'll do it myself." Sam rolled her eyes. "And you know as well as I do that if I go in there, Michael's going to start screaming his head off, and then we'll both end up in the can."

"Yeah, yeah." Carly pushed the door open and whispered, "Keep your eyes open, alright?" She shook her head and stepped inside… Then stopped.

The room was empty, and her first thought was that Michael had been taken. However, the window was closed and as she walked further into the room, her eyes wide and dazed she saw that the closet was open. Her feet moved faster now and she jerked the door open wider. There were nothing but hangers inside, empty, lonely hangers that swayed back and forth in the breeze she had caused. She turned abruptly and stalked to the dresser. She jerked the drawers open and stared at empty space.

Carly ran out of the room, pushing past Sam as she burst through the door and tore down the hall. She ran into Morgan's room and rifled through the drawers. They weren't completely empty, but the majority of his clothes were gone. His favorite toys were missing, and she realized she hadn't even thought to check Michael's toys. But, since she didn't trip over his remote control cars or his race track, she assumed they had to have been gone. Even if Leticia had put them away…

She stopped and once again ran out of the room. She hit a door between Michael's room and Morgan's, and there was nothing there. Anything Leticia kept at that house was gone. Somewhere in her mind, she was still convinced that her children had been kidnapped. But, if Leticia's things were gone… A kidnapper wouldn't take their sitter, too. Sonny had moved the boys, and she didn't have a clue where they were.

"Carly…" Sam came up behind her, speaking louder than a whisper, but still not enough for her voice to carry. "Carly we've got to get out of here. Wherever he put the boys…"

"Did you know?" Carly turned on her. "Did you know they were moved? Is this some kind of set up? Don't you see what he is? I mean… did he tell you that he'd get you off? He'd send the cops somewhere else as long as you made sure I didn't get the boys? Is that why you were so eager to help me?"

"Carly, you're being irrational. I had no idea, and I haven't made any kind of agreements with Sonny."

"Don't lie to me, Sam!"

"I'm not…" She stopped. Both of them shouting wasn't any good and while Carly couldn't stop herself, Sam could. "I'm not lying. I didn't know he was moving them. If I did, I'd have found out before we made the trip here. We just have to get back out so we can tell Jason and Lorenzo. They'll know what to do."

Carly looked at her, seething. She was being irrational, but that's the person that she was. Carly had never been very rational, especially when under stress. Her children were gone. She didn't know how to find them. For all she knew, Sonny had hidden them somewhere out of the country. They could be on that stupid island and she probably couldn't even get to them there. She'd been to that damned place a million times, but she'd never been there as anything other than a guest. To be there as a thief, there to steal her own children… That would be harder to accomplish than getting into Sonny's fortress.

Carly looked down as Sam tugged on her arm. "What?" She shook her head. "What is it that we can do now?"

"We can get out of here. I'll…" She stopped and sighed. "I'll go down, and if the coast is clear, you can come. If the coast isn't clear then… I don't know. I'll cause a scene. You just run, and I'll get out. Just meet me back at the yacht. I know how to get to the docks."

"Sam…"

"Just go, Carly. If you get the chance, get out of here and get back to Lorenzo."

Carly stared at her and didn't know how to feel, how to think. She knew that if Sam hadn't been there, she'd have run down the stairs, screaming at Sonny. She would have demanded that he told her where her children were, and in the end, she probably would have given up Sam and Jason. She would have done anything to get at her children, no matter how impulsive. And she'd have done anything to stop Sonny from hurting her worse than he'd done only an hour or more earlier.

And it wasn't just that she wasn't there alone. If she'd taken Courtney with her instead, she'd have still barged down the stairs. Courtney may have grabbed her, but she wouldn't have been able to talk sense into her. She had no stake in this, no personal reason to want to succeed. She might have made a claim that she would find out where the boys were and tell her, but… It all boiled down to trust. At that moment, in that situation, she didn't trust Courtney, but she did trust Sam.

"Alright," she said with a nod. "But, be careful. I really don't wanna have to go back and explain to Jason why you're in jail and none of us will be able to bail you out."

Sam gave her a small grin. "Then I guess I better not go to jail, huh?" Sam turned and walked down the stairs slowly. Carly watched her move, but stayed out of sight. She waited to hear something, anything. Finally, she heard a harsh whisper. Carly came down the stairs, and the living room was still empty. They turned and crept towards the door, moving swiftly, but quietly. Then, suddenly, Sam screamed, "Carly, run!"

Carly spun around in shock to see Sonny holding Sam by the arm. She froze for a second, flashing back to earlier in the day. Would Sam get the slap that she'd been waiting to get herself? Before she realized it, she was on her way back over. Her fingers hadn't even touched the glass before she began the sprint. Sam screamed for her to run again, but she wouldn't leave her. Carly grabbed her arm, but Sam jerked away from her.

Sam swung and her fist collided with Sonny's face. It probably wouldn't leave a mark and more than likely it hadn't hurt that badly, but the surprise of the moment made him release her. She grabbed Carly's arm and ran towards the door. "Call it payback for Nico," she said in response of Carly's bemused countenance.

They hit the door and as they pushed it open, the glass broke beside them. Glass fragments hit Carly's face, biting into her cheek and forehead. A loud pop sounded from behind them as they leapt over the patio wall and Sam screamed. Carly turned to see her holding her arm, but still running. "Sam!"

"It's just a flesh wound! Damn, Agent Bitch sure is trigger happy!" She looked at the blood on her hands for a second, but kept going. She picked up her pace and so did Carly. They reached the fencing and slid through the hole. They were both scratched up a lot more getting out than they had getting in, but neither cared. They continued to run until they reached the car, parked two blocks and around the corner from the house. There were still screams from behind them, but they were distant.

Carly got into the driver's side and looked into the rearview mirror. Any other time, she would have been concentrated on her face. Even with all that was going on, she had time to think that Lorenzo was going to be pissed about the glass. But, at the moment, there were other things on her mind. Sonny and his people hadn't yet rounded the corner, but they would soon.

"Oh, shit!" She stared at the wheel. "I don't drive! Last time I drove, I drove off a bridge!"

"Well, you shouldn't have gotten in the driver's side." Sam reached over and turned the ignition, then sat back in her seat. She looked at her arm and groaned. "Put the pedal to the metal, Carly. Get this thing going."

"But, Sam…"

"Drive!" Sam's foot crossed over the separator between them and smashed down on top of hers. Carly had no choice but to grab the wheel and haphazardly manuever down the street.

"I'm gonna kill you for this! No, I'm gonna kill us both, and then you'll be happy!"

"I'd be happy if you would just shut up and drive! We only have to get far enough away to ditch the car."

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you! You're trying to get me killed!"

"I'm the one that got shot, here!"

Carly growled, then screamed as she turned to wide and almost ran up on the sidewalk. Her hands flew off the wheel, then she grabbed it again, quickly. She turned another corner, then pulled into a parking lot. The car parked horizontally across two lanes. Carly turned off the car and snatched the keys out. She had no idea how far they'd gone, but she turned to Sam and said, "Either you drive or we get out and run."

Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. "Considering that by the time we switch seats and I get out of this shit job you did of parking, we'd both be caught…" She shook her head and got out of the car. Sam started to take off and Carly shook her head.

"Looks like we're running," she muttered, then jumped out of the car and took off after Sam.


	4. Chapter 4

"I wonder, sometimes, why I even bother with this whole thing. Why I let you get involved in it… Lord knows I wonder why I let Carly and Lorenzo get in this whole thing. It's not like they really have a place in it. Hell, it's not like they're even in it for me. Carly's in it because of you, and Lorenzo's in it because Carly asked. And you… God, Jason, you're in it because you love me and I really don't deserve it. You know what I do deserve, though? Jail, that's what I deserve. I did steal Sonny's money, but I swear, I didn't steal his daughter. I deserve to be damned for all the things that I've done in my life, and sometimes, I think I am. That's why Lila was taken from me, and Hope, and why I'm in this mess now. I'm damned, Jason, and the longer you stay with me, the more likely that you'll be damned, too."

Sam stopped talking, but only because Jason put his fingers to her lips. She didn't know why she started babbling. She had no intention of rambling on to him when she entered his stateroom. She was only going to watch him sleep, or stare at him with determination if he weren't sleeping. And, when she came in to find him sitting up in the bed, she had stared at him. She'd also told him in no uncertain terms that he was supposed to be sleeping and that she wouldn't tell him what happened with the boys until he'd slept at least two hours in her presence.

But, then, she'd made the mistake of taking off her jacket. The air in the room was stuffy, and sweat was starting to bead along the tattered remains of her shirt. The sleeve was torn off at the shoulder, but there was still enough to cover her. She may have done some things in the past, but she'd be damned if she were going to take off her shirt for some Alcazar-sympathetic doctor that she didn't even know. Her faith in a man's ability to keep his mind on the matter at hand was something to be desired. Hippocratic oath or not, this guy wasn't getting her out of her shirt unless it was absolutely necessary, and a flesh wound to the arm wasn't necessary.

Jason's questioning is what started her rambling. She opened her mouth to tell him that the wound wasn't bad. It was only a flesh wound, a little deeper than a graze, but not anything that would lose her the use of the arm. The bullet had gone straight through, leaving a clear, though somewhat ragged, hole in the fleshier part of her arm. She was actually glad that she hadn't lost all of the baby fat in her arms. Had she been as tiny as before, that bullet very well may have shattered the bone. Or it would have missed her entirely. A blessing and a curse, in some ways.

"Tell me what happened, Sam." Jason's voice was weak, but stern. Soft, but forceful. She wasn't going to be able to get past him without telling him. She wondered if he'd ever used that voice on Carly… or on Courtney. These days, the latter was the face that appeared in her head with the neon, flashing sign of "threat" above it. Had he looked at her with such concern, such pleading eyes, begging for the truth? Probably. He had married her after all. And at one time, he had almost married Sam.

"I shouldn't be telling you this, Jason. I mean… it's Carly's thing, ya know? I just went to help her. In fact…" She turned towards the door and sighed. "I should probably go see if she's alright. She was pretty shaken up when I made her drive the car, but that was really her own fault. She's the one that jumped in the driver's side. But, I know now. Next time, I get on the driver's side because it's dangerous as hell to be a passenger."

"Sam, you're stalling." Jason reached out and his fingertips tapped the back of her hand. He pushed himself up in the bed and groaned. Sam pushed at him, trying to force him back down, but he pushed her hands away. "Talk to me, Sam," he said with a grunt. "Tell me what happened or I'll get out of this bed and make Carly tell me."

"Jason…" She let out a heavy breath and closed her eyes. Why did he have to be so difficult? He was unlike any other man that she'd been with. Many of them would just let something go. Too much work for them. Too much drama that they didn't want to be a party to. But, Jason… He had to be in on everything. He needed to be the one doing the saving, and he couldn't save if he didn't know what was going on.

Couldn't he tell that she didn't want him to know? There were things about herself that she hoped he would never find out. He'd seen her at her weakest, and Sam hated that. He'd seen her in tears and held her as she screamed out her pain. He'd watched her fall to pieces and had later taken every harsh word she had tossed his way. Now, he knew her to be a thief. A map in her mind had some point marked with a bright red thumb tack. A mark that was off into the distance, maybe less than a year, maybe a little more, where she could have come back with her new baby girl and explained it all to him. Yet, that tack would never be reached, because he knew the truth. He knew that she would sink so low as to buy a baby to fill the empty hole in her heart. He knew that she would buy a baby, but he also knew that she wouldn't blatantly steal one.

"We went in to get the boys," she said, her tongue thick and heavy. She opened her eyes slowly and sighed. "We went into the rooms and they were gone. Leticia was gone. And Carly…" She shook her head. "I should really go get Carly and let her explain this all to you. I shouldn't have anything to say about her children."

"Carly has Alcazar," Jason told her, "and you… You went in there, and you got shot trying to help her. That part is where you have something to say. That's where you have a right to tell me what happened."

Sam took in another deep breath and let it tumbled from her lips. She reached up and pushed hair back behind her ear on the right side. Her eyes turned down to her arm and she gently fingered the bandage. It wasn't that bad of a wound. She probably could have avoided ever telling him about it… If she could have managed to always keep a long-sleeved shirt on. It was winter, so that wouldn't have been so hard. Stopping Carly from telling Jason about the shooting, though… That was a lot harder.

"I don't know who shot me," she told him. "It all just happened so fast, ya know? We were almost back out, ready to come here and let you and Alcazar figure out where the boys were and how to get them. Then, Sonny grabbed me." Jason started to sit up and she shook her head. Sam pushed him back down. "It's nothing new, Jason. I've been grabbed before."

"Sam…"

"Maybe one day I'll tell you about it, but right now, that's not important." She sighed. "I don't know what was going on back when Nico grabbed me. Maybe because I'd learned that with him, I had to let him do what he wanted. I knew that it was easier to just go, ya know? But with Sonny… I wasn't about to just let him get me, and Carly was already on her way back from the door…" She shrugged. "So, I decked him."

"You hit him?"

"Yeah, that's what I said, isn't it?" Sam smirked and found it strange that the situation, when looking back upon it, seemed somewhat comical. "Right in the jaw. Probably didn't hurt him that much, but it was enough to get him to let me go. So, Carly and I started running and the glass shattered. She got a little cut up in the face. A bullet hit my arm." She shrugged again. "I'm guessing that it was trigger happy Agent Bitch, because Sonny wouldn't have had time to get to a gun. We just streaked outta there and by the time we got to the car, Carly had to drive. No big deal, really. Well, okay, sorta big deal 'cause she almost killed us, but then we stopped, got out, and ran." Sam puffed out a huge breath and let her body droop. "And here we are. Back here, safe and sound, and without the boys."

Jason was silent for a few minutes, and Sam watched him in the quietness. His eyes closed and she thought that maybe he'd fallen asleep. Not like shoot-outs were anything new to him. For all she knew, they could have been like bedtime stories. Maybe he'd even wake up and think everything she'd told him had been a bad dream. Then she could cover it all up for as long as Carly would allow. But, then, his eyes opened, and she knew that he wasn't sleeping.

"I shouldn't have let you go."

"Oh, now you just wait a minute! How exactly were you gonna stop me, huh?"

"I shouldn't have let either of you go, and as much as I hate thinking we'd agree on something… Alcazar probably didn't want you to go, either." Jason sighed and closed his eyes again. When he opened them this time, his cornflower eyes seemed darker, his thoughts were heavier. "Alcazar stood right over there when you two left, and I just know that he was waiting for me to make excuses for Sonny. And ya know what? I came this close to doing it."

"Of course, you did. Sonny's your best friend, Jason. He's been like a brother to you for so long. You can't just throw that away."

"I can't let him get away with everything, either." He sighed and his eyelids drooped a fraction. "I said I'd make him pay, but I don't know if I can. I don't know if I can look into his eyes, knowing what he's going through, and do anything more than shake my head at him. I know that what he did to Carly was wrong, Sam. But, part of me says that he only did it because of the stress."

"Jason…"

"Thing is, there's always stress. The world we live in is a stressful place. So, what's going to happen the next time? What happens the next time that something gets under his skin? Is he going to take it out on Carly? On whoever is closest to him? I've always thought, well, he throws things and that's his release, but now I wonder. I wonder if he'll throw things at somebody. Then start throwing people around. I've protected Sonny from every enemy that has come his way, but how do I protect him from himself? Do I even want to protect him from himself, anymore? I have as much of a duty to Carly and the boys as I have to Sonny, and sometimes, I think I have more of a duty. They can't protect themselves, but he can. Sonny's been my home, my life, for so long, Sam. And now, look at me. I'm with his enemy, our enemy, and even as I tell you this, I'm thinking of all the things I could do to him for what he did to Carly. For what he's done to you."

Jason finally fell silent, and his entire body shook with a slight tremble. His face was so devoid of blood that he was almost gray. His eyes were tight with the effort it took to keep them open. That little speech had to be the most she'd heard Jason say in one breath. The strength that he'd given up to say it all took a visible toll on his body. Just listening to it made Sam feel weary. She could only imagine what Jason had to have been feeling. She could only imagine what he had to have been going through.

Everything in her own life had been so simple, most of the time. Her biggest decision had been over her baby, and in the end, that choice had been made for her. This, however, was something that only Jason could decide. He had to choose where his loyalties lied, where his heart lied. He had to choose between the pain of failing Sam, Carly, and the boys and the ache of realizing that he couldn't save Sonny from his biggest enemy of them all… himself. Though he had effectively made Sam's choice for her, she couldn't do the same for him.

Sam brushed his forehead lightly, letting her fingertips trail along the furrowed lines of pain etched into his skin. "Go to sleep, Jason," she said softly. She leaned into him, kissing his lips lightly. She stretched out alongside him in the king-sized bed, her body resting on top of the blankets. Gently, she placed her hand against his stomach, just above the fresh wound that lay beneath bandages, the bullethole that he'd gotten trying to protect her.

"I love you," he told her softly, rolling his head to the side. Her diminuitive form was pressed down against him and his chin rested on the top of her head. He rose his hand and gently let it fall down the curve of her face. "I'm here now, not just because I believe you, or because I think Sonny's out of control. I'm here because I love you."

"As many times in my life as those words have been said to me…" She sighed and moved closer into him, though still careful not to hurt him. "…this is the first time that I really believe them. And, it's the first time that I've really wished to hear them. I love you, Jason." She looked up at him and lightly touched his cheek. "I love you more than I've ever loved anyone."

Sam turned her head down again and closed her eyes. She didn't know if Jason would sleep, or if she would, either. At some point, when Alcazar had calmed down Carly, they would both come walking through the door. Then, they would have to come up with a new plan. Another plan that would probably send her out tromping through the snow with Carly again. A plan where she would risk her life and freedom to help a woman that previously, she'd had no use for, and vice versa. But, until that moment, she would try to sleep, and she hoped that Jason would, as well.


	5. Chapter 5

Carly twisted her hands within each other, not quite sure how to broach Lorenzo's self imposed solitude. She'd purposely avoided contact with him since returning, knowing at the sight of her slight wounds he would clench his jaw and his Arctic eyes would go icier. But now, there was nowhere else for her to go. She had visited every part of the yacht twice over, and unless she was going to head for shore, Carly's options were gone.

He knew that they didn't return with the boys, but it wasn't Carly who had told him. Sam McCall was showing just how useful she could be. As the doctor bandaged her arm, she told Lorenzo as much as she could. Just that the boys had been moved and the two of them had to make a mad dash out of Sonny's. She left out any news of Carly's injuries, as she'd been instructed, and instead focused on the fact that Carly had actually driven the car. She even made a joke of it. On any other day, Lorenzo might have laughed. On that day, however, Sam told her that his eyes were cold and heavy.

The amount of trust that Carly had put into Sam still astounded her. She'd put her life in this woman's hands, her boys's safety. These were things that she had only recently learned to entrust Lorenzo with, and before would have only trusted Jason. But dire circumstances made for strange bedfellows, and for her, they couldn't come stranger than Sam.

Carly knew that her thoughts were sheer procrastination. She had avoided contact with Lorenzo, yes, but he hadn't come after her. She worried that he was deciding if any of this was worth it. Then, she worried if he was plotting. He was so quiet, so still… Staring at his back, he reminded her of Sonny. He was taller, thicker, but the posture was Sonny before the storm. His rigid back was Sonny before he broke and started throwing and smashing things.

Looking around the room, though, it was obvious that Lorenzo had done his smashing in private. He always did, as though letting her see his tirades and his rage would lessen him in her eyes. It wasn't the first time that she'd walked into a room with broken glass, shattered vases, and displaced furniture. It was the sign of Lorenzo's rage, and she was glad that she hadn't seen it. She didn't want him to be that much like Sonny.

"I know you're standing there." Lorenzo's voice was low and crawled from deep within his throat. "And I know about your face, Carly. There isn't a doctor or medic on this yacht that wouldn't tell me something when I asked."

She took in a deep breath and rolled her lips together. Carly folded her arms, hugging herself tightly. Slowly, she released her breath. As it escaped, her jaw trembled. She bit her bottom lip. "I didn't want you to see it. I didn't want you to be angry."

He turned to her and for a moment, his eyes glistened. He closed his eyes and when they reopened, the hint of tears were gone. He stayed where he stood though, watching her cautiously. "Agent Marshall."

Carly nodded. She took a step forward and glass crushed beneath her feet. She stopped and looked to the floor. The clear spots were sparse. She looked around and it seemed as though every piece of glass in the room was shattered. Liquid mixed with glass, coloring it the shade of whatever liquor coursed through the smashed pieces.

Carly looked up at him, then tilted her head to the side. She averted her eyes and focused on a spot on the floor. "They're gone, Lorenzo. He knew I'd come back for them and he moved them. I should be glad that Leticia's with them, but… she's not their mother. I don't care how mad Michael will be that I'm here with you, or that I helped Sam…" She faced him again with tears streaking her cheeks. "They're my babies, Lorenzo. They're my babies and he took them from me."

Lorenzo's body loosened. His shoulders slumped. As he released his anger, he looked as though he shrunk a couple of inches. His body moved in on itself, then stretched back out as he walked to her. The glass broke and crunched beneath his feet and the sound was loud and abrasive to Carly's ears. She cringed against the noise, then it was forgotten as his arms opened. She tucked herself against him, huddling into his body. His arms wrapped around her, one around her waist, the other higher. His hand lightly touched the back of her head and she sobbed.

There was such comfort in his arms, a comfort that she couldn't remember feeling with anyone else before. The closest she ever got was with Jason. He had been her only protector for so long, her only true trusting friend. She could cry against him and feel safe. Hugging Lorenzo was similar to that, only somehow more. Jason had once been in love with her, but not anymore. When he held her, it was only the love of friendship, the devotion of promises made. With Lorenzo, however, there was a promise of more. He wouldn't just keep her safe. He wouldn't only make sure that her wrongs were made right. When everything was over and the world was back on its proper axis, he would make it up to her. He would give her everything she could ever need to be happy. She would eventually hug him again, and that time, pain wouldn't leak out of her body in the form of bitter tears. There would just be love and comfort, the safety of another person's heart belonging only to her.

Carly pulled back from him, somewhat reluctantly, and wiped her eyes. "I shouldn't be breaking down like this." She shook her head and felt more tears spilling from her eyes. She wiped them again. "I'm stronger than this. You shouldn't have to keep doing this, ya know? Making things better while I cry. I should just stop crying."

"Carly, you deserve to cry." Lorenzo rose one shaky hand and hovered his fingertips over the cuts in her cheek. "With all that's happened…" He moved his fingers closer but still didn't touch. "How badly does it hurt?"

"It's not bad," she said with a shake of her head. "Sam got hurt worse. She, um, she got shot and…" Carly shook her head. "I don't know why she's helping me. I don't know why you're helping me. You should really just let me go. I got myself into this, and now I've pulled you into it. Lorenzo, it's not right, and I still keep doing it."

"You can't pull me into anything that I don't want to be in." He sighed and let his hand drop to her shoulder. Slowly, he ran his hands up and down her slender arms, though he didn't make it all the way to her wrist. He stopped just below her elbows and Carly knew it was because of her other wounds. "I don't like Morgan, and I really have no use for Sam McCall, but I don't want to see someone railroaded. If I believed that she had kidnapped that little girl, Carly, believe me, I would have denied you this. I wouldn't stand party to a child being hurt."

His eyes went off into the distance, and Carly knew he was thinking of Sage. Lorenzo had lost so much, and others always made his losses less important. Standing there with the knowledge that her sons were alive and well, her own problems seemed trivial in comparison to his losses. His brother, his twin, was murdered and no one had ever been punished for it. His neice had been murdered and all he received were well wishes and nice thoughts of her after-the-fact; nice words that would have never been said about her when she was alive.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, and it wasn't just that Sage was gone. Or Luis, for that matter. Some part of her had always wondered if Luis had contacted Lorenzo before his death; if he had let him know everyone that he'd approached for help and who turned him down. She didn't feel guilty for not helping Luis, and she didn't think she contributed at all to his death, but she still wondered, in the beginning, if Lorenzo would ever transfer his need for vengeance from Sonny to anyone who'd had any negative contact with Luis, at all.

But, no, she wasn't just apologetic for his losses. She was apologetic for not being there for him during the last one. Even when she didn't want him around, he was there for her. Every time that Sonny used the boys against her, Lorenzo's arms were open to her, his heart and home were there for the taking. Yet, when the last of his family was stolen from him, her own life was too important. He had to bury his neice alone. He shouldn't have had to do that. She should have been there to hold his hand or something. He shouldn't have had to stand between his brother's grave and his neice's and watch that last connection be lowered into the ground.

"I don't do enough for you, Lorenzo." Carly sighed and stepped back. A chunk of glass crunched beneath the heel of her boot. "You do everything for me and I… All I do is leave you waiting and wondering, and that's not fair."

"You trust me, Carly, and that's more than enough." He sighed and lowered his head. "I know how you feel about Morgan. I know that you'll always love him, that you want to return all the favors that he's done for you. You put his life in my hands and that means that you've got more trust in me than you've ever done with anyone else."

"I do trust you, Lorenzo. I just…" She shook her head. "Everything is so confusing. These past couple of days have just been a mess and I don't really know how to handle it all. I mean… You wanna talk trust?" She barked a harsh laugh, mixed with a frustrated sob. "I trusted the woman that was pregnant with my husband's baby! I trust a woman with my life, with Jason's life that I… I wanted her so far from Jason, Lorenzo. I didn't think she was worthy of him, but…" She shook her head. "God, I just can't believe what I've done in the past couple of days."

"You've thought for yourself, and honestly, Carly, you haven't done that in a long time." He took her arms lightly by the wrist and slowly began to push up her sleeves. Carly tried to fight him, but Lorenzo was determined. She didn't want to see the marks again. She didn't want him to see them, again. "And I hope that now, after this, you'll do it all the time."

Carly looked down at her arms. The purple was fading into a sickly green. The imprints of Sonny's fingers were visible. She closed her eyes and she could see it all over again. She could feel it again. Tears leaked from her closed lids. Carly opened her eyes and forced herself to look up at Lorenzo.

He wasn't Sonny. No matter how similar he had seemed from behind, standing in a room of broken glass, she knew that he wasn't her ex-husband. Lorenzo would never grab her like that. Even when he was angry, she would never look at him and be afraid that he would strike her. Her heart was safe with him, but so was her body.

"I'd love to say that he didn't mean it, but I know he did." Carly let out a heavy breath. "He would have done anything to get the information out of me. And when he got it, he might have apologized, but I know that he'd do it again if he had to. And, he would just toss me aside like I was yesterday's garbage. Sonny always says he doesn't forgive betrayal and this would be the biggest betrayal of them all."

"Carly, whether you stay with me when this is all over or go find your own life, it doesn't matter as long as you don't go back to him. I've said it so many times before, and I've meant it. I love you, and I want you with me, but more than anything, I want you away from him."

"I know, and I won't go back." She looked up into his eyes and wanted so badly to tell him that she loved him, but she didn't want to say it just because of the circumstances. When she confessed the love that had been building in her for over a year, she wanted it to be obvious that she loved him, not just what he could do for her. "I know where I belong, Lorenzo, and it's not with Sonny. Sometimes, I don't think I ever belonged with him. I gave up a man who loved me once before to be with him. I won't do that again."

Lorenzo's arms enveloped her and he sighed against her head. Carly curled against him and savored his warmth, his affection. "That's enough for me," he said softly. "I love you, Carly. I never want to see you in this kind of pain."

She remained silent against him. Her arms snaked out and around him, encircling his waist. Carly held onto him tightly. He was her safety, her way out of the life that did nothing but hurt her. She could have stayed that way forever, but a crunch of glass behind her made Carly pull back and turn around.

A tall Hispanic man stood in the doorway, his arms to his sides. He didn't look like one of the regular attendants on the yacht. He was better dressed and he stood a bit taller. "Mr. Alcazar," he said, "we've located the children. Corinthos has taken them to a safe house just outside of Port Charles."

"Thank you, Julio," he said with a nod. "Tell the captain to take us down the shore. We'll take one of the smaller boats onto the mainland outside of Port Charles." Julio nodded and left. When he was gone, Lorenzo looked down at Carly. "We leave Sam here with Morgan. I'm going with you."

"Lorenzo…"

"I won't let Corinthos hurt you again, Carly. I'll be there with you and, no matter what, we will get those children before anything can happen to them. You've trusted me with Morgan's life, now trust me with your children."

"I do trust you, Lorenzo. I just… I don't want you to get hurt."

"Believe me." He looked down at her and his eyes began to cool and harden. "If it gets as rough as when you went with Sam to get the children, it won't be me that ends up hurt."


	6. Chapter 6

Carly could feel disappointment choking her, clutching at her throat hard enough to make her cough. She'd wanted desperately to believe that once she and Lorenzo had reached the safe house, she'd be reunited with her boys. Unfortunately, reality was harsh and it was unfeeling. There wasn't even a sign of Michael or Morgan at the house.

If nothing else, she might have handled it better had there been some small memento of her sons left within the vacant walls. Perhaps a fallen sippy cup or one of Michael's little race cars. Something she could hold onto and squeeze. As it were, the only thing that remained was the faint smell of baby powder on the air. She knew they had been there, and it was possible that they had just missed them.

Had they been in one of the cars that had passed them on the street? Carly had sat with her hands tightly wound together, staring out the window. They drove over icy roads, and her heart threatened to stop its constant pulsing. She hadn't spoken to Lorenzo during the drive, just stared out the window, hoping that maybe she would see some hint that they were doing the right thing. Some hint that, possibly, she would finally get her hands on her children and be able to run. Had her chance to escape with her boys raced past her on the slippery streets?

Now, however, she knew that her hope had been futile. She should have expected this from Sonny. He knew that she would find her children. He knew that Lorenzo would find them. Carly was actually shocked that the police hadn't been waiting for them when they arrived. Perhaps, Sonny had been so fervent in his theft of her children that he didn't think that far ahead. Or maybe they were just waiting for them outside. Waiting for them to head back to the yacht so they could ambush Jason and Sam.

Well, if they wanted to drive all the way to New Jersey, then they could bring it on. If they picked up a tail, that's exactly where Lorenzo was prepared to take them. He would make a phone call, drive into Newark, and within a couple of hours, be back aboard his yacht, and no one would be anywhere near Port Charles.

Except for Carly…

She wouldn't go. If they had to run, she wasn't doing it without her sons. She would go to prison first. Carly was under no illusions that Sonny would give the boys back if she ratted out Jason and Sam. He would just use her aid to them to make sure she never saw her children again. Thus, she would sit in a cell and let the hours tick away. She would keep her lips sealed and let Sonny figure out how to explain to Michael and Morgan why had their mother locked up.

"Carly." She turned slowly towards Lorenzo. His face was calm and blank, a mix between his business mask and the one that he wore when he was trying to be strong. He held a phone in his hand, raised halfway towards his ear. "We'll find them."

"Does he hate me so much, Lorenzo?" Her words caught in her throat and she felt like she would choke. Carly took a step towards him, then faltered. She closed her eyes, trying to will herself to be strong. Tears streamed out from beneath her lids and she knew her strength wouldn't last long. She opened her eyes. "Michael's not even his son! He's mine, Lorenzo. He's my blood and he… He just took him."

"I have people searching. We'll find them, Carly, I promise you." Lorenzo snapped his phone shut and slid it into his pocket. His mask started to slip away, his eyes slowly darkening with concern and… frustration, maybe? Insecurity? "I have to ask you this, Carly…"

She blinked up at him and cocked her head to the side. "What?"

"Are you sure you want to go forward with this? I know you want to help Morgan, but is it worth your children?"

Some part of her had known that the question was coming. She'd asked it of herself a hundred times as they drove to the safe house. "This isn't about Jason, anymore," she said softly. "Even if I turn them in…" She shook her head. "Sonny will use this against me," she told him. "He'll have us thrown in jail for aiding and abetting. The only way to get my boys back is to take them from him and wait until they find the real kidnapper."

"As long as they're looking for McCall, they'll never find the real kidnapper."

"They'll slip up. They have to. I just…" She shook her head again. Carly hugged herself tightly, then let her arms fall to her sides. "I can't trade Jason in for something I know Sonny will never let me have. I just…" Carly choked back a sob so hard that it shook her body. "I want my boys back, Lorenzo."

His arms opened and she walked to him. Her body was tucked before she reached him. His arms wrapped around her and Carly cried out her pain and longing against his chest. It was the only security she had left, Lorenzo's arms and his scent, and she had to hold onto that. Because if she let him go, she would surely lose her mind.

* * *

"They're taking too long." Sam paced back and forth, her arms folded. Her booted feet landed with a thud at each step. "This shouldn't have taken so long. I don't like it."

She hadn't liked the idea in the first place. They were going to be stuck where they coasted if Lorenzo and Carly got picked up by the cops. Lorenzo was the only one who could order the captain to take off, and he would use his one phone call to reach an attorney. He wouldn't waste that call to the yacht. Besides, he would know that they might be listening in on the call, just in case, and wouldn't risk it. Lorenzo Alcazar may not have been at the top of her most-trusted list of people, but he sure as hell wasn't a moron.

Beyond that, Sam was worried that Carly would turn them in. She'd seen the desperation in her eyes when she realized that Sonny had sent the boys away. If she thought that she could get them back by telling, she would. They didn't like each other, and Carly would sell them right down the river. She might even use that one phone call to lure Sam off the ship. That way, she could hand Sam over to Sonny without putting Jason in any danger.

"Sam…"

She ignored Jason and continued her pacing. A large part of her said that she was being ridiculous. They hadn't been gone all that long, and it was possible that they had just stopped somewhere. There was no reason for them to stop, but hey… sometimes, things came up. Maybe they needed to make an emergency stop for one of the boys. Or maybe Michael wasn't being cooperative. Whatever it was, it couldn't have been all THAT long, and if they were behind, there had to be a reason for it.

Another bit of her also told her that Carly wouldn't have turned them in, not after her first encounter of the day with Sonny. She wouldn't just hand anyone over to Sonny when he was in a rage. Carly could be mean as hell when she wanted to be, but she wasn't that cruel. And even if she were, she didn't like guilt. She wouldn't want it on her conscience if Sonny ever did anything to her. Sam could handle it, but again, Carly probably couldn't.

"Sam, look at me." She hugged and turned towards Jason. She stopped to the left of the bed and stared at him. He reached out to her and her arms fell to her sides. "Come here."

She had given up on trying to get Jason to go to sleep. He'd been awake since Carly and Lorenzo had left the yacht. Actually, he'd been awake before that. He slept for a little bit, but when they were leaving… He wanted to know what the plan was. He wanted to know what they were going to do, how it would be done, and what would come after. They would either tell him, or he'd shoot his way off of the yacht. In the end, telling him had been easier.

Sam felt bad for him. He was caught up in so many places that he shouldn't have been. It wasn't just her trouble, anymore. She knew the love he held for Michael, and the thought of him being somewhere without his mother had to be tearing him apart. And then there was Carly… There was a history there that Sam didn't even want to know. Their friendship was hard enough for her to handle. If there had ever been anything more, she didn't want to know about it. She preferred to be on the fringes of that particular point in history.

But, still… there was enough of whatever between them that he was filled with frustration and anguish. He was torn between two best friends, and there was no easy way out of that spot. Sam was glad she didn't have to make the kinds of choices Jason had been forced to make in the past couple of days, or come to the realizations that had to have dawned on him in the past few hours. It had to be hard to realize that the enemy was the good guy, and Sonny was the villain. Neither had said it, but Sam thought they had both thought it; Lorenzo Alcazar would never lay a hand on Carly the way that Sonny had.

Sam sighed and walked to him. She reached out and took his hand, then sat on the side of the bed gently. Jason's hand wrapped around hers and he squeezed as tightly as his strength allowed. "We'll give them another hour."

"Jason…" She shook her head. An errant tear fell down her cheek and she wiped it away. "You're not doing anything but laying here."

"I'm tired of laying here." He pushed himself up, grunting and groaning as he moved. "I've been laying here for days and that gets us no closer to finding Kristina. And it damn sure doesn't get us any closer to having Michael and Morgan."

"Alcazar's taking care of it."

"Alcazar can…" Jason cut himself short and groaned. This time, Sam didn't think the sound had anything to do with pain. Jason had to admit that Alcazar was doing something for Carly that he couldn't do. That he was doing something for Sam that he couldn't do. "I'm the one that promised Carly I'd never let anyone take her kids from her, not Alcazar."

"Jason, we both know that this isn't about promises you've made or anything else. It's about Sonny, and your loyalty." Sam sighed. "You feel like you're betraying him."

"Aren't I?" He sighed. Jason's grip on Sam's hand loosened a bit, then he tightened it again. "I've chosen everybody over him and…" He sighed again. "I don't feel bad enough about it. First you, then Carly, now Alcazar… I'm supposed to feel worse about betraying him."

"So, you think denying that he was wrong will make up for that? Or that wracking yourself with guilt over your lack of guilt will make up for it?"

"Yeah?" He shook his head and groaned. "I don't know. I just wish it hadn't come to this."

Sam hated the pain in his eyes. If she thought that turning herself in would alleviate that grief, she would have done so in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, her gut feeling was that turning herself over to the police would only make matters worse. And, it would only push closer the time when Jason and Sonny would have what could be their final showdown.

Sighing, Sam carefully laid down beside Jason. She was tentative as she put her arm over him, cautious not to add anymore physical pain to the emotional anguish that already filled him. Jason put an arm over her and she sighed. "It's taking too long," she said softly, "but we'll both wait. A little bit longer, and then…"

"Then, someone's going to have to go out after them."

Sam looked up at Jason with finality. She reached up to lightly press her fingertips against his jaw then said, "And it most definitely won't be you."


	7. Chapter 7

The groan behind them made the women stop. Almost overboard, dressed in black, Carly and Sam each stopped with a leg over the railing. Carly's foot touched the top rung of the ladder that led to the small boat that hovered beside the yacht. Sam's foot hit against the side of the yacht. The cold air blew against their faces, pushing black and mahogany hair against reddening cheeks.

"I knew you two were up to something."

Sam looked at Jason and sighed. There wasn't enough time for this. The sun would be coming up soon, and they couldn't sneak onto the mainland with light pushing against the winter clouds. The last she saw Jason, he'd been asleep. Or pretending to be asleep. She had kissed him gently on the lips, and he hadn't moved a muscle. When she wiped sweat from his forehead, he hadn't opened his eyes. It was the only chance she would have to get off the yacht.

Carly looked at Sam for a second, then turned her eyes to Jason. If she had to choose someone to go out there and find out what was going on, it would have been him. Not that she didn't trust Lorenzo to find her boys or the real kidnappers, but she knew he wouldn't have done it personally. He'd have sent people off to do the work while he stayed a safe distance away. Jason, however, would be the direct hero. But, he was hurt, and he couldn't do it. He shouldn't have even been standing there.

Sam and Carly had come to a conclusion. In the wee hours of the morning, they knew this would only be settled if the real kidnapper were found. Sonny and Agent Marshall were too busy trying to find Sam. Lorenzo was concentrating on finding Michael and Morgan. Jason was hurt. That only left them. They were the only two who remained able-bodied and determined enough to get out there and do what needed to be done. Sam had to clear her name. Carly had to be reunited with her sons.

"You're supposed to be asleep," Sam said with a sigh.

"So are you." He limped forward, his hand clutching his side. Jason's chest was bare, and the cold air caused him to shiver. His steps faltered for a second, then he moved on. "Both of you should be."

"We've got things to do." Carly threw her other leg over and steadied herself on the ladder. "We have to do this, Jase."

"You don't have to do anything." Blood seeped through the bandage on his stomach and grew sticky against his hand. "You have to get back up here and let us handle it."

"You can't do anything, Jase." The wind blew and Carly held on tightly. The last thing she needed was to go over the side of the yacht. Pneumonia didn't figure into her plan. "All you can do is go back to bed. As long as I know you're alright, I can do what I have to do."

Sam looked from Jason to Carly. She saw the blood starting to ooze and wanted to run to him. But, she couldn't abandon Carly as she hung over the side of the ship. With the luck they were having lately, the second she left, Carly would fall off and hit the water. That would all lead to the destruction of any trust the two women had with each other. They were under no illusions that they were helping one another out of the goodness of their hearts, anymore. Now, they both had something to gain from it. Both of their lives were on the line. Leaving the side of the ship would give Carly the idea that she couldn't trust Sam, that she was only in it for her own selfish reasons, and that wouldn't help either of them.

"Jason, please, just go back to bed." Sam sighed and let her head fall. The wind blew her hair into her face and with black gloved hands, she pushed it back behind her ear. "Let us do this, Jason. I know you want to help us, but right now… You can't do that. Alcazar can't help, either."

"We're not children, you know." Carly grunted in disgust. "We've gotten ourselves into and out of a lot of worse stuff than this, Jase. You know that. We can handle this."

"Alcazar doesn't know you're doing this, does he?" Jason managed to reach the side of the yacht, though it took some effort. He leaned against the railing, then almost jumped back. The metal was cold against his bare skin, but he wasn't going to be able to stand up on his own. He leaned again, this time slower. "I don't like the guy, and damned if I trust him, but… He wouldn't let you do this."

"No," Carly told him, "he wouldn't, which is why we waited until both of you were asleep. And even if you decide to tell him, there's no way you can move that fast. We'll already be ashore by the time you get back below deck and wake him up."

"Carly…"

"She's right, Jason." Sam sighed, then shuddered. "And believe me, you have no idea how much I hate saying that…"

"And I like admitting you're right?"

"Carly, please!" She sighed again. "Look, Jason, I know you want to help, but right now, you can't. Neither of you can do anything but let us do this. We both have raised some hell before, but now we have a purpose to do it. There are children involved, Jason. We can't just let the children be used. Sonny's using the boys against us all, and whoever kidnapped Kristina…"

Sam stopped and everything went still. Jason watched as her eyes went glossy, the only thing stopping the tears from falling being the arctic air that froze them before they could hit her cheeks. "If this is about Lila, Sam, you don't have to. We'll have another baby, our own baby."

"Jason, just… stop." She shook her head. "This is only about Lila because she's the reason Kristina is alive. Whoever took her knew that I'd be the number one suspect and on some level, it does make sense. But, I didn't take her, and I have to prove that."

"You wanted us to get along, didn't you, Jase?" Carly gave a nervous chuckle. "Well, what better way for us to give it a shot than go on a psycho mission together?" She bit her bottom lip and tried to grin. The effort wasn't infectious, because Jason continued to look at her with hard eyes. "She's gotta prove she's innocent. I have to get my boys back. Lorenzo can't get close enough, and you aren't physically capable. That leaves Sam and me."

"I don't like it," Jason said with a groan.

"But, there's nothing you can do about it." Carly's words were final and more harsh than she'd ever used with Jason. "Just… Tell Lorenzo not to come looking for us. Tell him to just let us do what we have to do."

"And how do you even know what you're looking for? How do you know where to look?"

"We have copies of all of Alcazar's information," Sam told him. "Anything he's dug up, we have, and we'll use it." She tapped the strap of a black leather bag that crossed her chest. "And anything else, we can get from this laptop. We've got our leads, and thanks to Sonny and Reese's idea about taking me back to the house, we've got a place to start."

"It had to be an inside job, Jase. One of Sonny's men had to be in on it, otherwise, the system would have never gone down like that. We just have to follow the trail."

"We can do this, Jason. You just have to let us do it. We have the power and the resources. And if we need anything, we've got cell phones. We'll check in and let you know what's going on, but you have to stay here. You have to get well, just in case we need back-up later on."

"Tell Lorenzo…" Carly sighed and shook her head. "Talk to Lorenzo, Jase. He won't understand. He'll say he does, but in the end, he won't, and I know that you always will. You know I have to do this."

Carly looked at him hard and Jason sighed. His head dropped as he muttered, "Yeah."

"So, let me do this."

Carly tucked her head down and started to move down the ladder. Sam slid to the side, throwing her other leg over. Jason inched towards her, putting his hand over hers on the railing. "Sam…" She looked up into his aching eyes and wished that she could give him what he wanted. She wished she could stay there with him, let him hold her and reassure him that he was her hero. But, right then, he couldn't do anything. At that moment, only she and Carly were capable of doing what was necessary.

Sam leaned towards him and kissed him lightly. "I love you," she whispered, then headed down the ladder. She didn't look back up, knowing that she might change her mind if she saw Jason's face again. She knew that, no matter how much this needed to be done, she was a selfish person at the core. She could have been safe, on her way to some obscure island somewhere, waiting with Jason until everything had been solved. She could have said the hell with Carly and her children and just let Alcazar fulfill the part of the deal that he had signed up for. She knew she could do it all, and she would do it easily, but…

But, she didn't want to. And so, she couldn't look at Jason, because for the first time, he'd have made her do something that she didn't want to do.

Sam landed in the boat and looked at Carly. She wouldn't look at Jason, either. She couldn't look at him and see the pain there… Pain because he couldn't do anything. Pain because he couldn't keep up his end of the bargain. This time, for the first time, he couldn't protect her. He had to let her go on her own, do what he would have done for her in a heartbeat. She had to stand on her own, and he would have preferred that she leaned against him.

"Okay," Sam said, taking a seat across from Carly. "How long do you think we have before Jason gets downstairs and tells Alcazar where we're going?"

"He won't," Carly said softly. "Not just yet." She turned up and, as she had expected, Jason was still standing there, looking down at them. "We'll have just enough time to paddle to shore. He won't move from that spot until we're out of his sight."

"Out of his sight." Sam's voice was soft. That was one place that she suddenly didn't want to be, but knew she had to be. She shook her head and sighed. She pushed them away from the side of the yacht, then picked up an oar. "We can't think about Jason right now, or Alcazar. We just have to find Kristina, which means…"

"That we go to the first name on our list. We pay Royal a little visit and see what he has to say."


	8. Chapter 8

"Seriously, I realize this isn't the best time...but does this just feel completely surreal to you too?" Sam's question broke the silence the two women had fallen into.

"I..." Carly had a snipe ready...but strangely the need and the desire to utilize it just wasn't there. "Y-yeah. Surreal...I'm just...it's strange how calm I feel."

"That's because we're on the right path. We're gonna take care of things, Carly."

Carly looked up at Sam and… To tell the truth, had absolutely no idea of what to say to that. She was of two minds on the subject. Regular, every day Carly wanted to say something smartass about stating the obvious or that they were on the right path, of course, because she'd come up with the idea. New, desperate Carly, however, wanted to thank her for helping and that she was glad that she wasn't there alone. Carly felt like Two-Face in that Batman movie. She wished she had a special coin to flip that would tell her exactly which side to go with. Not having that coin meant that she was just stuck in the middle, wavering back and forth between flippant and sincere.

Sam sensed Carly's tension, and it wasn't just because she was one perceptive former scavenger. Sam held her own tension and apprehension where Carly were concerned. While she completely understood that they were both desperate and had quite a bit in common, it was very hard to get over the mutual hatred that they'd had for so long. They just didn't like one another, plain and simple. If they managed to come out of this situation… not friends exactly, but at least not enemies, well… It would really prove that dire circumstances made for strange bonds.

"There he is." Both women were shaken out of their ruminations as Royal walked slowly into his apartment. Carly thought that he seemed… sneaky. As though he wanted to be sure that nobody saw him. "Now, why in the hell would he be looking like he's trying to make a getaway?"

"Because he's guilty as hell." Sam's eyes narrowed. She flexed her hands, then cracked her knuckles. The sound was muffled by her black leather gloves. The wind blew hard and her hair came crashing against her face. She shoved it back, then put her hand in her pocket. This was dirty work, and loose hair wasn't going to work for it. As she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, she said, "Alright, we go in there and we make him tell us what he knows."

"And if we ask nicely and he doesn't talk?" Carly's hair was already tied back and she yanked on the ends of her ponytail. "Are you sure you're up for what I'm willing to do to him?"

"He stole a little girl and framed me for it." Sam stood up and dusted the snow from her knees. "Royal deserves everything that he gets. And, who knows. I just might give it to him whether he tells us or not."

* * *

"They're going to get arrested. For all of Carly's talk that she can depend on you, in the end, can she really? You just let her go off without even a word?" 

"I tried to stop them."

"You didn't try hard enough. Dammit, Morgan! Are you really in this to help Sam and Carly? Or are you just doing this as part of some kind of duplicitous scheme concocted by Corinthos? You sent them straight into his arms!"

Jason looked at Lorenzo and glowered. He could have strangled Carly for leaving him to handle this mess… Or at least gave her a very disapproving glare. Of course, Carly always left Jason to clean up her messes. He just didn't like it when cleaning it up involved explaining his actions. He didn't believe that he needed to explain anything to anyone. As long as he understood why he'd done the things that he'd done, then he didn't care. Unfortunately, Lorenzo Alcazar wasn't going to take that as an answer.

"You know what I don't need right now?" Jason groaned then grunted as he pushed himself up on the bed. He would have preferred to be standing for this argument, but he'd already ripped out some of his stitches trying to talk Carly and Sam out of their little mission. He didn't like Alcazar standing over him while he spoke, didn't trust it, but unless he wanted to end up in a hospital somewhere, he had to lie down. "I don't need you making matters worse. I have enough problems of my own to deal with where Sonny is concerned without you throwing accusations at me."

"Then tell me why I shouldn't think that you have something to do with this? Tell me why I shouldn't toss your ass overboard and worry about explaining it to Carly later."

"Well, for one…" Jason gritted his teeth against the pain as he reached under his pillow. He came out with a shining, silver 9mm. "We'd both end up dead. Your guards would come running but not before I put one in your head."

Jason's arm wavered and the time it took him to straighten his arm was long enough for Lorenzo to pull a piece of his own. Lorenzo's gun was black and sleek, and it nestled easily in his palm. "Then there won't be a need for explanation, because we'll both be dead."

"Exactly." Jason sighed and slowly let his arm fall to the bed. He wasn't aiming now, so much as pointing in Lorenzo's general direction. He knew that neither of them was going to do anything, but neither would they verbally back down. "I let them go because they were right. They both need to do this. They need to be strong on their own without us saving them. Sam and Carly… They know how to take care of themselves."

"Carly's been beaten down too much to stand up to Corinthos." Lorenzo folded his arms, but kept the gun pointed in Jason's direction. He didn't want to shoot him if he didn't have to. Carly had lost enough in the past twenty-four hours. However, he wasn't ready to put his gun away just yet. "They're both too emotionally involved to handle this."

"Do you really know Carly at all, Alcazar? Do you know what she does when she really gets emotionally involved? This is the woman that shot a man in open court for kidnapping Michael, all because she knew she'd spent a little time playing crazy in Shadybrooke, then be back home. Carly knows how to handle herself."

"And Sam? Are you prepared to let the woman you love stand out there alone?"

"She's not alone. She has Carly." He shook his head. That sounded strange. From the look on Alcazar's face, it sounded just as strange to him. "I'd rather they both had me at their backs, but I've done all that I can for them, and so have you. I've got a bullet in me, and you're their information. They'll call us when they need us. And by then, bullet or not, I'm getting off this yacht and going in."

"And Corinthos? What if he gets ahold of them?"

Jason stared at him, his breathing slow and even. "They say history is doomed to repeat itself. In my case, if Sonny hurts Sam or Carly…" He shook his head. "If he hurts either of them anymore than he already has, then it will just repeat itself."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means, Alcazar, that you've had one life and lost one brother. I'm on my second life, and I'll be left to lose my second brother."

* * *

"Now, we're going to ask you one more time." Sam knelt in front of Royal, her hands resting on his knees. "Who are you working for and where is Kristina?" 

Royal looked at her with defiant eyes. He looked pat her to Carly and a grin spread across his face. He didn't think either of them would do anything. They were too small, too demure. He'd watched both women bow before the will of Sonny Corinthos too many times for him to believe that either of them had what it took to get information out of him.

"You might as well start running, now, because as soon as you're gone, I'll be on the phone to Mr. Corinthos. He'll have you both in jail in seconds. That is, if you don't end up in the hospital, first."

Carly caught herself before the shudder passed all the way through her. She didn't doubt that, should he find out where they were, Sonny would come in and let his anger rage on. She'd seen enough of it for a lifetime in the past day and had no desire to see it again. But, she wasn't about to let Royal see that she was afraid.

"And what'll you tell him, huh?" Carly folded her arms and pursed her lips. "What'll you tell him about why we're here? About why you were sneaking around and packing like you're headed out of the country?"

"I'll be unpacked by the time he gets here. It'll be like there's nothing wrong. And as for why you're here…" He shrugged as best he could with his arms strapped to a chair. "I'm sure I'll come up with something."

Sam glared at him, then pushed herself up to her feet. This man was scum. He had no conscience whatsoever. He was helping someone, a person who, for all they knew, could have been ready to kill Kristina at any second. Sam spat at him and the spittle caught on his cheek, then dripped thickly down to his shirt. She turned to Carly and said, "Go for it."

Carly stepped up and was surprised that she didn't have to prepare herself more. She didn't need to find her fortitude in the bottom of a bottle. She didn't need to think of how to get out of it before she did anything. The last time she'd even come closely to doing something like this was when she shot Tony Jones in open court. And that hadn't even been physical contact. That was distance between the two of them, with a handgun crossing the gap.

But Royal knew where Kristina was. Royal knew how to end all of this mess so she could get her children back. Royal probably even had an idea where Sonny was keeping the boys, and he wouldn't tell her. That was all the steel she needed in her spine.

Carly took her wedding rings from her left hand and put them on her right. She balled her fist tightly and swung. She collided with Royal's cheek, her rings striking and tearing his flesh at his cheekbone. Her knuckles stung, but she was able to forget about it when she saw the blood on his face. He didn't give her any reason to believe that it had hurt him, and she knew that it probably wouldn't have if she hadn't been wearing the rings. But split skin hurt anyone, even if the only proof was water instantly welling in his eyes.

A click behind her made Carly turn. Her face was calm as she stepped to the side, letting Sam step forward. The petite brunette lifted her leg and rested her foot against Royal's knees. She leaned forward and aimed the small gun at him. "Something you should always know about Jason, Royal, is that he never goes anywhere without a backup. Where he is now, he won't need it, but I just might."

"You're not gonna shoot me." Royal tried to keep his voice even, but the waver was audible. A woman hitting him was one thing. A pissed off woman pointing a gun at him was something entirely different. "You fire that thing once and there'll be cops all over this place."

"Oh, really?" Sam reached back with one hand and Carly placed a small, cylindrical object in her hand. She stared at Royal as she screwed the silencer onto the gun's barrel. "Now, what is it you were saying?"

"Lorenzo has so many of those around." Carly stepped forward, her right hand still covered with Royal's blood. Clenched within the palm of that hand was a small gun of her own, complete with silencer. "And he has so many of these, too."

"Now," Sam said, stepping back from him, "before we have to do something more drastic we'll give you one more chance to tell us where Kristina is and who you're working with."

"And where Sonny's keeping my boys."

Royal made the mistake that was going to cost him a lot of information. Carly fired into his right knee. Sam fired into his left. The bullets left the guns in soft pops. A scream left Royal's mouth in agony. Sam quickly stuffed one of her gloves in his mouth, then stepped back to stand beside Carly.

"We'll get what we want out of you one way or another," Carly told him stiffly. "It just looks like it's going to be the way that causes you a whole hell of a lot of pain."


	9. Chapter 9

Carly supposed brandishing guns and shooting people's kneecaps wasn't the 'proper, polite' way to get information. When it came to her boys, however, proper and polite made way for ANY means necessary. And truly, it was amazing how seemingly tough guys sang when they were in a slight bit of pain. It was also amazing how much a woman could do to a man when she was angry, but couldn't take when she was done.

Sam stood beside a tree, tossing up whatever would come out of her stomach. Carly had a momentary urge, at one point, to go and hold her hair back. But, considering that her own dinner threatened to come up at just the sound of Sam's retching. If she had to actually watch it, she probably would have been down there, right beside her.

But, she'd done good. Carly had to give her credit, as much as she hated it. She'd managed to hold herself together, and it wasn't until they were outside of Royal's apartment that Sam had let herself go. It wasn't until they were hidden that she allowed herself the weakness that neither of them had dared to show inside. So, Sam could puke if she wanted. In fact, she could puke for both of them, and they'd just call it even.

But, all retching aside, they had their information. Royal had been surprisingly strong through the first bullets. But when they started inching up his legs, moving closer and closer to his groin, he became more vocal. When Carly shoved the gun into his crotch, he'd screamed like a little girl. When Sam grabbed his hair, jerked him forward and threatened to make him watch her "blow your shit to kingdom come," he'd told them everything they wanted to know. Well, almost everything.

Royal truly had no clue where Sonny had stashed the boys.

But he knew other things… Things that Carly didn't want to know.

Sam walked back over, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She groaned, then twisted her hands together. "I'm starting to wish I'd had something other than my gloves to stick in his mouth." She sighed and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "What do we do now?"

"We go to Manhattan and get Kristina back." Carly looked at her with exasperation. That should have been obvious. They got the information for a reason. What the hell else would they be doing?

"Not that…" Sam shook her head. "I mean about Royal." She turned her head back in the direction of the apartment building. They were far enough away to be able to talk without whispering, but still within eyesight of the building. "We can't just leave him like that, Carly. If we do, it won't matter if we bring Kristina home. We'll still go to jail for murder."

"Dammit." Carly sighed. "I hadn't really thought about that." She pursed her lips and tapped her chin thoughtfully. They'd both gotten so carried away when they finally heard what Royal had to say. They hadn't actually meant to kill him. But when he let everything out… There were two neat bullet holes in Royal's head because of what he had told them.

"Call Lorenzo, Carly." Sam sighed and shook her head. "He can get rid of the body. Royal was already planning to skip town, anyway, they'll just think that's what happened."

Carly looked angrily at Sam, but her rage was partially for herself. She felt like an idiot that Sam had to be the one to mention Lorenzo. Carly could say that she was just trying to do it all herself, trying not to get Lorenzo involved, but she knew that wasn't right. She was so far off into the land of "I can't believe this shit" that her brain was barely working.

"Ya know, if you keep this up…" Carly reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. It wasn't the one she'd carried before. Since they went to hide on the yacht, Lorenzo had given her one that couldn't be traced. She was grateful for that, right then. "If you keep coming up with ideas, I might have to hurt you. I'm supposed to be the brains of this outfit."

"Uh huh." She rolled her eyes. "I'd like to see you try. And I mean try to hurt me and try to be the brains of anything."

"Oh, you…" She shook her head and snickered. "I swear, when this is all over…"

"Yap yap yap. Make the call."

Carly growled and hit the speed dial to Lorenzo. "I'm taking a long vacation when this is over, and come hell or high water, it's a vacation nowhere near you."

* * *

Lorenzo paced the deck, stars winking overhead. On most nights, he would have soaked them in, enjoying the sheer loveliness the night sky had to offer. On this night, however, his mind was stuck on Carly; where she was, how she was, if she was safe. The fact that he had no clue of what the answer to any of those questions was filled him with concern and set him on edge. 

He had hoped that the open, night sky would give him some kind of comfort, but all it did was make him worry more. The dark sky and twinkling stars gave him an infinite number of possibilities to fill his mind, an infinity of things that could have happened to Carly out there, alone. The only thing he was positive about was that she hadn't been arrested. His people in the PCPD would have let him know, but other than that… For all he knew, Carly and Sam could have drowned each other in the harbor.

There was another reason that he needed to be outside, though. He couldn't spend another minute in the inner confines of the ship with Jason Morgan so close. Granted, the man could easily limp his way on the deck, but at least up top, he wasn't closed in. And it made his threat to throw him overboard all the more powerful. Not that Lorenzo actually would, but it was a good threat, nonetheless. He'd yet to throw anyone overboard, but he had a feeling that Jason could very well become the first.

"Senor Alcazar?" Lorenzo turned slowly and waited. "Senor Morgan is asking to see you in his cabin."

Lorenzo groaned. Of course, he would beckon. Leave it to Morgan to pull him back into the depths of the ship. But, Lorenzo had to think rationally. Morgan was just as eager to get out there and help the woman as he was, so he wouldn't have come running up, knowing that he would just hinder his recovery. But still… He didn't like to be beckoned aboard his own ship.

He grumbled all the way below deck. Lorenzo stopped at the door and took a deep breath. The men had already agreed not to pull guns on one another at every single meeting, but Lorenzo still felt the need to have his bases covered. The holster that pulled tightly against his shoulders was only a small comfort as he walked inside the room, closing the door behind him.

"What do you want, Morgan?"

He rolled his eyes and groaned. "Have you heard anything yet?"

"If I'd heard anything, then I'd have told you." Lorenzo narrowed his eyes. It was obvious that neither wanted to be in the other's presence for an extended period of time. They could have done without the company, even if they were both lonely as hell. "They're both still out there, and I've got men looking for them. When they turn up, I'll know."

Jason sighed and rolled his head. "I hate that I have to be stuck here with you. But more than that, I hate that I can't be out there with Carly and Sam." He rolled his head back to the center and looked at Lorenzo. "Do you know what it's like, Alcazar? To not be able to help the people that you swore to protect? Do you have any idea what it's like to have to trust an enemy with your life?"

Lorenzo was uncomfortable. This moment… It wasn't a conversation he wanted to have with anyone, let alone Jason Morgan. This was his enemy, a man who had tried to kill him on Corinthos's orders more than once. Now, he wanted to have a talk. Why? To make himself feel better? To pass the time?

"I don't know where you think any of this talk will lead."

"To some kind of understanding. To some sort of truth that I need to find that's going to let me make it through being stuck on this damned yacht with you while Carly and Sam are out there doing what we should be doing. Hell, I don't know, Alcazar. Blame it on the morphine your doctor gave me."

Lorenzo sighed. "Fine," he said with a groan. He stepped back and leaned against the door. He folded his arms and was comforted by the bulge that rested beneath his left hand. "I swore to always protect three people. Sophie, Sage and Luis. All three of them are dead right now, because I let them down. You can hate my brother all you want. I know that you were on your way to kill him, anyway. Personally, I find it laughable that you or your boss could condemn anything that I've done when you're only real motivation for wanting my brother dead was because he and Corinthos wanted the same woman. You can claim it was business, Morgan, but we both know the truth. Luis died because of Brenda Barrett."

Jason was quiet as Lorenzo spoke, so he went on. "Sage died because I wasn't there to protect her, just the same as Sophie. So yeah, Morgan, I know what it's like to fail someone that I swore to protect. I won't do that again. I won't let Carly die because I can't be there to save her. I'm putting faith in her ability to protect herself, but I'm still looking for her. And when she calls me, or when my men find her, I'll be there."

"And the rest?"

"No, I don't know what it's like to put all my trust in an enemy, but I've shown twice now that I can put enemies aside. You're living proof of that. I helped you and that McCall woman because Carly asked me, too. Because it would have hurt her if you had died, and I couldn't let her hold that kind of pain. It's the same reason I pulled Corinthos out of that hotel fire. Because Carly would have wanted me to. And she'd have never forgiven me if I had let him die."

"And the reason you put a bomb in Sonny's car?"

"I never said I was perfect. Unlike you and Corinthos, I realize that my tactics are not always the best way to go about things. Granted, I realize that too late a lot of times, but I still realize it. And in the end, I was the one who got the most pain out of it. I was the one that almost died."

"If you're looking for sympathy, I'm more likely to give it to the devil first."

Lorenzo snorted a laugh. "I don't need sympathy from you anymore than you need it from me. Neither am I trying to become your friend. I have very few of those and I like it that way. Less people to be in harm's way. But, you're the one who wanted an understanding, and I'm giving it to you. We may not be the same man, Morgan, but we're of the same fiber. We've both done things that were wrong. We should both be spending multiple lifetimes behind bars."

"But neither of us are, and neither of us will."

"Exactly." Lorenzo sighed and stood up straight. "Now, if we're finished, I'm going back up top to…" He stopped as a sudden shrill ringing pierced the room. He rummaged quickly through his pockets until he came up with a phone. The lighted LCD told him who it was and as he answered the call he anxiously said, "Carly! Where are you? What…" He stopped and listened. He turned to stare across the room and watched as Jason sat up in the bed with a groan. "You need to get back here, now. Both of you. Let us handle it from here." Another pause. "Carly… Carly, you can't do that. I won't let you… Carly?" He sighed. "Yes, I'll take care of that, but Carly… Carly!"

The line went dead and Lorenzo let his arm fall. He looked into Jason's anxious face and sighed. "Apparently, Carly and Sam do know how to take care of themselves." That was as close as Lorenzo was going to get to telling Jason that he was right without saying the actual words. "Their suspect was someone named Royal, and they got the information out of him."

Jason spat out a curse. "I should have known. That son of a bitch… He was on duty the night Kristina disappeared. I think I mentioned that to Sam while we were at the PCPD."

"They found him, they talked to him, and they killed him." Lorenzo sighed, but Jason just stared at him shocked. "But, before he died, they got the information out of him. They know who kidnapped Kristina, why she was taken, and Carly has informed me that they're taking one of my cars and driving into Manhattan."

"Well?" Jason sat forward more, then groaned and fell back. "Who was it?"

He looked at him hard, pursed his lips, then said, "John Durant."

* * *

**_Author's Note: I realize that, to some, Carly's reaction to the reveal is going to seem off. Possibly as though she's not feeling it the way that most would think that she SHOULD be feeling it, but please, bear with me. There is a reason for it, and that reason will be explained as best that it can be in the next chapter. There's a lot going on right now, and I don't want to overload every chapter._**


	10. Chapter 10

For the first time since their adventure began, Sam was really worried about Carly. She had stopped talking the second they got in the car, and even before that, she had ignored the most pressing subject. What would she do, knowing that her father was behind all of this?

Carly had done so much to reach some kind of relationship with her father. Just the fact that Carly and Sonny were no longer together had seemed to heal some of the strains of their relationship. It wasn't perfect, by any means, but there wasn't the constant fighting about Carly's husband. All of that could have been gone in the blink of an eye, the second they looked at John Durant.

What worried Sam the most, though, was that the cold stillness that had overcome Carly during the drive to Manhattan had been eerily similar to the calm that had come over her when they stepped inside Royal's apartment building. They had both made up their minds to do whatever was necessary to get information out of Royal. But, Sam hadn't completely made up her mind to kill him and she thought that Carly had.

Sam preferred the hysterics from before. Not that either situation was an enviable place to be in. On one hand, her ex-husband had left her physically bruised, something she was probably not used to having done to her. On the other hand, her father was a kidnapper. For all they knew, he'd planned to take Michael and Morgan, too, but just couldn't get to them.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this," Sam said with a groan. She kept her eyes on the road, though occasionally took the chance of glancing at Carly out the corner of her eye. "But, Carly, could you say something? You're freaking me out."

Carly didn't say anything, but Sam heard a rustle in the seat beside her. She flashed a look out the corner of her eyes and saw Carly turn towards her. The ponytail that had previously held her back was now loose and her hair fanned around her face. She pushed one side back behind her ear, and she was pale. The things they'd done to Royal had little to no effect on her, but this knowledge… It made her ghostly.

"I know this isn't something you want to talk about, Carly, but it's something that needs to be discussed. We have to know what we're going to do when we get there. We have to have some sort of strategy. Otherwise, we'll just end up in jail and Durant will probably claim that I had Kristina all along and you helped me."

"He wouldn't do that," she said, her voice strained and distant. She turned back to look out the windshield. "He'd probably just talk us into going along with whatever plan he's got. Blame somebody else. He wouldn't leave us holding the bag."

"He might not have left you holding the bag, but he was sure as hell willing to let me hold the bag. He was willing to let me go to jail for a crime I didn't commit."

Carly went still again, staring out the window. Sam sighed. She wasn't about to go into an unknown situation without a plan. Honestly, they didn't even know if Durant would actually be there when they showed up. There could be guards, sitters, any number of people on the outside before they reached the inner sanctum where Kristina was waiting. For all they knew, there could be a fight on their hands that was bigger than either of them would be able to handle alone. This might have been something that they actually needed Jason and Alcazar to take care of.

Also, Sam was worried about Kristina. She didn't know if the little girl was scared, or if she was being treated well. She didn't know if Kristina knew exactly what was going on, or if they'd gotten someone competent enough to look after to make her believe that it was all a game. Sam barely knew Kristina, but that little girl was all that was left of her baby girl, and she couldn't help but feeling that it was her own child that had been stolen. Even if Alexis wouldn't let her near her… She still felt connected to her.

"How did you handle the things that you went through? Not just the miscarriage. I've been there before. Not the same way, I mean. My baby wasn't…" Carly sighed. "I know what it's like to lose a child, so I'm not talking about that. I mean… the other stuff."

The question caught Sam off guard enough that she actually turned to look at Carly for a brief second. She was starting down at her wrists, touching the purple and green mottled skin that blemished her arms. Sam sighed and looked back to the road. This was a conversation she'd expected to have with Jason at some point, but not with Carly. Of course, this whole thing was something she'd never expected to do with Carly. Playing Mission : Impossible with someone who had hated her guts a little over a month ago wasn't on her to-do list.

Sam sighed again and shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "It's just something you get used to, after a while. Choosing the wrong men, taking the abuse. After a while, it sorta feels like what you deserve, ya know? The punishment for making the wrong choices. Nico wasn't the first one, but I prayed for the longest time that he would be the last." Sam shrugged. "I guess I just… I don't know. I just came to expect it. That way, I'm not disappointed when it does happen. I'm just pleasantly surprised when it doesn't."

"Jason wouldn't do that to you," Carly said softly. "He's a good man. Too good for me, that's for sure. It's no wonder that I screwed it up with him. I probably knew that he was too good for me, deep down, I mean. And I should know that Lorenzo is too good for me, too. He'd certainly never do this to me." She sighed. "But, Jason won't hurt you. That's something no one with him will ever have to worry about."

"I know Jason won't hurt me. I figured that out way before we actually…" She paused, feeling uncomfortable. The whole conversation felt strange, the situation. Bonding with Carly felt like something out of a horror movie, and she was just waiting for the monster to hop out of the backseat and kill them both. "He was too nice to me, even when he hated me, ya know? He'd never hit me, which almost makes me surprised that I'm in love with him. I don't usually love anyone who's not going to hurt me. It's almost a prerequisite."

"I tend to screw it up with the ones that won't hurt me. AJ Quartermaine may have been a lot of things, but I knew he wouldn't actually hurt me on purpose. I can even admit now, looking back, that he didn't push me down those stairs. Oh, I'd never say it to his face, and until the day I die, I'll probably keep throwing it in his face when we fight, but I was just as much to blame as he was. And we all know how I screwed up with Jason. And Lorenzo…" She sighed. "It seems like all the good gets messed up because I've got to be with the one person who's wrong for me in every way."

"We all make bad choices, Carly. It's a human trait that none of us are ever going to be able to escape. I mean, look at us. I'm pretty sure, right now, that we're in the middle of one really big bad choice, ya know? 'Cause bonding aside, this has got to be one of the stupidest things that either of us have ever decided to do."

Carly snorted a laugh. Out the corner of her eye, Sam saw her wipe away a couple of tears. "You have no idea the idiot things that I've done. This actually ranks pretty low on the scale of dumb as hell compared to some of the things I've done."

"Oh, really?" Sam smirked. "I doubt that. If I can't think of anything dumber…" She paused. "Wait, no. I'm thinking scaling the side of a burning building with Jax was a pretty stupid thing to do. So maybe this is my second dumbest, but can you really say you've done dumber than this?"

"I faked insanity to get out of a prison term because I shot Tony in open court. I stole my mother's husband. I was a cheerleader in high school. Can you get much dumber than that?" Carly laughed and shook her head. "And the dumbest thing of all… I went back to Sonny after he shot me in the head. So yeah, I think I've done dumber."

"All of those were less wise things," Sam told her. "Dumb is like… The last mission you went on that was absolutely ridiculous, even when you did it. That kind of dumb."

"How about dumping Courtney's car after she hit Elizabeth? And I have to make sure that I mention the fact that I was pregnant at the time, I almost went over the cliff with the car, and Lorenzo's the only reason I survived. Talk about stalking coming in handy." She snorted. "But yeah, I'm figuring that was pretty stupid."

"Well, you have a point there." Sam laughed and she felt a little more comfortable. She thought that it wasn't necessarily the situation itself that was so uncomfortable for her as much as the person she was in it with. Sam was all for moving on with her life and leaving the past behind, but she couldn't get over the fact that she was doing all of that with Carly. Though, Jason would probably be overjoyed if the two could come out of this closer than they'd gone into it. He might even say that after he was done yelling at them for being idiots. "So, how about we just say that this ranks with the second dumbest thing that either of us have done?"

"Deal." Carly laughed and let it taper off. The car went silent again, lasting until they hit Manhattan traffic and were stuck sitting in the middle of a busy street at night. About twenty minutes. Carly broke the silence by saying, "I want to believe that he has a good reason for this, Sam. I want to be able to believe that the next on his list weren't Michael and Morgan, but it's hard. And I know if he gives me a good enough reason, I'll believe that he wasn't going to take my boys."

"We have to be prepared, in case he's not there. What if we get there, and Durant's not there?"

"Then we find him, and we make him explain." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small black tape recorder. "If Royal had just been willing to talk without the torture, I'd have taped him and this would have all been over. No matter what he said… I'd have turned the tape over to Ric just to end this whole thing."

"Would you really? I mean… If you had on tape that your father was behind the kidnapping, could you have just forgotten this whole little mission and gone to the police? Just to clear my name? Just to clear Jason?"

"I…" She stopped then sighed. "I don't know. Giving it to Sonny would have been a death sentence, I know that. And I don't want to get my kids back just because Sonny was tossed in jail. Especially not because he was tossed in jail for murdering my father. Besides… Sonny wouldn't have done it himself."

"He'd have told Jason to do it."

"Exactly, and Jason would have done it. As it is…" She sighed. "I walked into that building knowing that Royal was a dead man, Sam. I knew it. Whether Sonny had him killed for his betrayal or I did it. I knew he'd be dead. I was expecting him to say that Michael and Morgan were next, ya know? And if he'd put my boys in danger, I would have killed him. But it didn't even end up being about my boys. It wasn't even about you or Jason or even what Sonny did to me. Royal put a child in danger, and I couldn't let him live. I knew that going in there. I knew that he was going to die."

"Carly… What does that mean, now? What does that have to do with Durant?"

"It means…" She turned towards Sam and her face was threatening to crumble. Her bottom lip trembled. "It means that there is a huge part of me that tells me that I'm going to walk into that building and my father will be a dead man. A part that says I won't even give him time to explain, and I don't know if I can push it down by myself."

"Carly…"

"I'm trusting you, Sam. I'm trusting you now more than ever. I've never been nice to you before, and the only reason you'd have to help me is so you don't end up an accessory to murder. Lorenzo covered up Royal, but if you and Jason are going to be in the clear, he can't cover up John and I can't kill him. If this little bonding moment of ours means anything, I don't know, but Sam, I'm trusting you."

"Carly… What are you saying?"

"I'm saying…" She sighed and closed her eyes. Tears leaked out from beneath her lids and she reopened her eyes. "I'm trusting you to stop me from killing my father the second I see him."


	11. Chapter 11

"Where do you think you're going?"

Jason's eyes narrowed as he stared at Alcazar. If he thought he was going to run to the rescue on his own, he was sadly mistaken. Jason's wounds were double stitched and his stomach was double bound. As long as he didn't make too many quick movements, he would be fine. "You're not doing this alone."

Lorenzo groaned and shook his head. "Carly left you in my care, and if something happens to you…"

"Nothing's going to happen. You can't stop me from going, Alcazar."

"And what do you think you'll be able to do, Morgan? You can't fight. You can barely stand up. What good will either of us be if I have to carry you around Manhattan."

"You won't have to carry me anywhere." Jason grunted and eased his leg over the side of the boat. "After what they did to Royal, I need to be there. I don't know what Carly will do to Durant if someone's not there to stop her, and I really don't believe Sam will be able to do that."

"That's why I'm going, and you're staying here." He sighed. "I'm only going to bring them back. My people have cleaned up Royal's apartment, and the only thing that will be found there is a note leading them to the address where Durant is holding Kristina."

Jason looked up at him as he straddled the side of the ship. "You're hoping the police get there before Carly and Sam."

"Yes, I am. I want this entire thing to be over with. I want Carly to have her children back and I want you off of my yacht." Lorenzo groaned. "You were right," he admitted reluctantly. "Corinthos took the bait. By the time we docked, he was already aware of the supposed sighting of Sam at Royal's apartment. By now, he has the address and is on his way to Manhattan."

"And if he doesn't get there in time?" Jason put his hand to his side, but held in a groan. "If Sonny gets there when you're there, somebody has to be around that can control him. I can do that. I've stopped him before, and I can stop him again."

"What are your concerns, Morgan?" Lorenzo leaned against the side of the yacht and folded his arms. "Are you concerned that Carly or Sam will be hurt? Or are you afraid that I'll see Corinthos and kill him for what he's done to Carly?"

Jason was quiet for a few minutes. He stared at Lorenzo, but his eyes grew dark, then lightened as his breathing slowed. He held on to the side of the ship tightly then sighed. "Alcazar, I could care less what you do or what you think. I'm trying to help both of them. Sonny was the only brother I held on to for a really long time, and even though I know he has to pay for what he's done, I can't let him go that easily. He may not be blood, but he's still family to me. Whether we end up estranged family or we can work it out is none of your business. But I'm not about to let you go in there and execute him any more than I'm going to let Carly live with murdering her own father."

Lorenzo was quiet this time, returning Jason's stare. His own bright blue eyes shifted between darrk and light before he finally spoke. "Fine," he said, standing up straight. "But, know this, Morgan. I am not going to let you put Carly at risk just so you can save Corinthos. If it comes to a choice, I'll put a bullet in his head before he can lay a hand on her again."

* * *

Luckily, guards were non-existant. Considering that no one was looking for John Durant, Sam could understand why. There was no need for guards, and should the police stumble upon the place, it would probably be easier to put the kidnapping off on her. Everyone thought she had taken Kristina based off of maternal emotions. If that were the case, why would she need security?

Besides, guards would mean more people to know his plan. More people to pay off, and more people who could give him up under the right conditions. There was no one inside the bedroom but Kristina and a nanny. The woman didn't speak any English and Sam didn't speak any Russian. Making the woman understand that she was going to take the girl wasn't going to be easy.

She supposed she could have put the gun in her face, but she didn't want to run the risk of scaring Kristina. It was late enough that she'd hoped that Kristina would have been asleep. Unfortunately, she was wide awake, watching some strange creatures on television. At one point, the screen flashed Boo-Bah, and Sam rose an eyebrow of disapproval. She'd have to make sure to tell Alexis that Boo-Bah was definitely not proper viewing for a child. It could give a kid nightmares. Hell, those things could give an adult nightmares.

The rest of the apartment was empty, and by that, she meant almost totally vacant. The only room that was furnished was the bedroom where Kristina stayed. The trash in the kitchen showed that she'd been surviving on take-out for the past few days. There was one loveseat in the living room and a television across from it. Whenever Durant was there, he must have watched the news of the kidnapping on that set, sitting in that chair.

Carly was outside the bedroom door. She said she was being a lookout, but Sam knew that she was waiting in hopes that Durant would show up. He hadn't been there when they arrived, but all calculations said that he hadn't been there in days. The last time they were in Port Charles, Sam could remember seeing him in town. He'd probably badgered Sonny as long as possible for the way he treated Carly. He had to come back and check on his investment, his plan… whatever the hell he expected Kristina to be. And Carly would wait in that hallway until he arrived.

Sam shook her head. She didn't have time to worry about Carly. At the moment, there was a little girl who recognized her, but was trapped in the arms of a Russian nanny. Sam took in a deep breath and reached into the waistband of her jeans. "Kristina," she said softly, "close your eyes, okay? I'm gonna take you back to your Mom, but for right now, I need you to close your eyes. Like a game, okay?"

Kristina looked at her confused for a second, then slowly, her eyes began to close. When Sam was sure that Kristina couldn't see her, she pulled the gun from her jeans and rushed forward. She pointed the gun at the woman, then leaned into her. She spoke softly and, even though the woman probably didn't understand her words, she definitely understood the gun pointed at her head. "I'm taking her with me, and if you try to stop me, you won't like it."

The woman released Kristina's arms.

* * *

She had long since left the bedroom's door and now stood in front of the entrance to the apartment. Carly had been almost positive that he would be inside. It had just been too easy to get into the place without him being there. But, inside they went, and he was nowhere to be found. Yet, she felt that she would see her father soon, and as Sam tried to pry Kristina from her nanny, Carly was proven right.

The door opened and closed without his head ever rising. "John." As Carly spoke, he spun around, staring at her with wide eyes. The shock was evident on his face, and so were the lines of sympathy that he immediately tried to bring up. "Why'd you do it, John?"

"Carly…" His briefcase fell from his right hand. A paper bag from McDonald's fell from his left hand. John rose his hands slowly, holding them out to his sides. "I can explain all of this…"

"Can you, John? Can you really?" Carly's hands were at her sides, her right arm pushed behind her. She held tightly to the butt of the gun, the same gun that she'd used to put a hole in Royal's head. "Can you explain to me why you would steal a little girl? Why you would take a child and let someone else take the fall? Were you planning on taking my kids, too?"

"Carly, your boys were never in any danger. I would never hurt my grandchildren."

"But you hurt children all the same!" Her voice had been remarkably calm until that moment. Her eyes had remained dry and focused. But now, her eyes filled with burning tears that leaked down her cheeks. Her body shook with rage. Her voice rose and cracked. "You took that little girl!"

"I was going to bring her back, Carly. You have to believe me." He took a step forward and suddenly stopped as Carly rose the gun. Most of her body shook, but her arm was steady, held fast and firm by the support of her left hand. "Carly…"

"Why did you do it, John? You have to tell me why you took her. You have to make me understand. How could you…" Her voice cracked and she swallowed hard. "How could you watch Sonny hide my kids from me?"

"Carly…"

"Tell me!" Carly steadied herself. She took in deep breaths and let them out slowly. She wanted to close her eyes, to regain her composure, but she couldn't afford to take her eyes off of him. The second she looked away, he would pounce. She had to keep her eyes open, no matter how badly the tears stung. No matter how much she hated looking at him. "Tell me why, John."

"I did it for you, Carly. For my grandsons." He stepped closer to her, hands still out. "You had to see how dangerous Corinthos could be. The danger that you and your children would be in with him around."

He moved even closer and she yelled, "Stop!" Her arm started to sag and she pushed it back up. "Don't come any closer, or I will shoot you. I'll hurt you for what you've caused."

"I knew you'd go back to him, Carly. He'd take you back, and you would go. And if this could happen with Corinthos, it could happen just as easily with Alcazar. You had to know what you were getting into. You had to know."

"I know everything!" Her tears flowed faster. "I know that you claim to love me, but you hurt me more than anyone could. I know that I should have listened to Momma when she told me to leave it alone." She let out a shaky breath. "You were going to let Sam take the fall for this."

"At first," he said, "yes, but I saw how tightly you were connected in this. You wouldn't believe that she'd taken her, but Faith Roscoe…"

"Faith is gone!" Carly straightened her arm again. "You were going to let… God, I can't believe you, John! How can you say you did this for me?"

"I love you, Carly. You're my daughter."

"No, you don't and no you aren't!" She jerked her arm, pointing the gun at him in jerking motions. "I don't have a father, anymore. I can't… I can't believe you! Did you really think that you would get away with this? That Royal would have kept his mouth shut? Jesus, John! You talk about putting people away, but you did worst than Sonny or Lorenzo have ever done!"

"Carly?" The voice came from behind her, but she didn't dare turn. "Carly, what are you doing?"

"Where's Kristina?"

Sam took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "She's just around the corner. She's going to stay there until I go back and get her." Sam walked towards her slowly. "Carly, we have Kristina. We can go. We'll just take her home."

"We can't just leave, Sam. We can't leave him here to get away with it."

"The tape recorder is in your pocket." Sam talked slowly, carefully. It reminded Carly of the way people talked to her when they thought she was crazy. "I turned it on and put it in your pocket before we came inside."

"But it might be muffled. They might not be able to hear it. It has to be known that John did it. That John took her."

"They will know." Sam paused as the door opened. Carly looked past Durant to see Jason and Lorenzo standing inside the door. Sam's voice was soft, almost patronizing as she said, "Jason? Lorenzo? Tell her that the police will know that Durant did this."

"They'll know, Carly," Lorenzo told her. "They're on their way here. We left clues at Royal's apartment. But, we can't be here when they arrive, and that's going to be soon. And we have to leave Kristina here."

"No!" Sam stepped up to Carly's side quickly. "We are not leaving her here!"

"Sam…" Jason grunted and moved forward. His right arm hung heavily at his side, gun in hand. "They have to connect Kristina with Durant. We can be nearby and watch them come get her, but we can't be here when they show up. He'll just try to put it on us."

"We have the tape, Jason. We have proof that he did it. There's a Russian nanny in the other room that can tell them that Durant hired her. Granted, they have to find somebody who speaks Russian, but they can do that. We can't just leave her here."

"We have to. We've got to get here before the cops get here. More importantly, before Sonny gets here. That'll be a showdown that Kristina shouldn't see."

Carly listened to them rationalize, but she didn't want rationale. She wanted John to pay. She wanted him to realize that he couldn't just hurt people. He couldn't do whatever he wanted to do just because he thought it was right. "All of you shut up!" Carly screamed. She took a step towards John, holding the gun tighter. "We are not leaving here until he gets what he deserved."

"Carly…" Sam stepped up to her and reached out slowly. "Carly, you can't do this."

"Yes, I can. I can do it, and I won't feel anything but relief. I have to do this, Sam."

"No, you don't. You can let the cops handle it."

"Don't you see? Don't any of you see? I brought him into my life, our lives. I gave him the in to do this because I was so damned selfish. I wanted my father, all the time that I was keeping Kristina from her father, I wanted mine. And it's because I was selfish that this has happened. I have to pay and this is my punishment."

"Remember what you said in the car, Carly?" Sam walked up to her, but Carly kept her eyes forward. She saw Jason and Lorenzo moving towards her, but at every step, she shook the gun, letting them know not to come closer. "You put your trust in me, Carly. You trusted me to not let you kill your own father."

"I lied."

"No, you didn't. You knew that after all we've been through, I wouldn't screw it all up by letting you do this." She reached out and her hands hovered over Carly's. "You don't want to do this because if you did, you wouldn't have made me promise to stop you. I won't have you thinking you can't trust me when we've been through all of this to show that we can trust each other."

"He's got to pay, Sam."

"And he will. But, we have to get out of here first." Sirens blared from outside, but no one could be sure if they were the ones they expected or not. "We just have to get Kristina to safety."

"She won't be safe. Not with Sonny. I know that. He's right." Her arms shook. "Faith could have easily taken her, or anybody else. And his rage… All of this was so Sonny would hit me. I know what this is."

"Carly, you're just being paranoid. Give me the gun."

"I am not paranoid. He knew Sonny would crack. All of the children are unsafe with him, but first, they're unsafe with John. He took her, Sam. He took her and he would have let us all go down for it."

"Carly…" Sam sighed. "Carly, Kristina is in the other room. Even with the silencer, she'll hear him fall. She probably hears everything we're saying. She can forget it all, but she won't be able to forget if she sees a body." Her hands lowered, landing on Carly's hands. "Just give me the gun, alright? Let me have it, and then we'll take care of it."

"I just…" Her voice broke into sobs that covered her words. "I just want him to pay."

"And he will." Sam closed her fingers around the gun and slid it out of her hands. Carly crumpled and Sam caught her. Seconds later, Lorenzo was by her side, lifting Carly from the floor. She curled against him, crying. As he walked her towards the door, Sam and Jason held their guns on him. Sam said, "You're going to stay here, and you're going to tell them everything that you did."

"What makes you think that I won't give you up? That I won't say that you came in here and took the girl?"

"Because…" Sam looked to Lorenzo and said, "Get the recorder out of her pocket." He pulled out the small black player and handed it to her. Sam let the tape play. "It's a digital recorder, Durant. And I can erase or distort anything that we don't want the police to hear. And that's not really all that much, considering that we've not actually admitted to doing anything other than trying to return a girl to her mother. You, on the other hand…" She rewound, found the part she wanted, then played the tape as Durant admitted to stealing Kristina. "We're taking that little girl to her mother, and you're going to jail."

Durant looked at them all, then let his eyes fall on his daughter. "Carly, you have to understand…"

"All she has to understand is that you will never see her again."

Sam looked up at him and nodded, then looked to Carly. She was still tucked against Lorenzo. He looked at Sam and Jason, then headed for the door. A call rang out and he walked towards Jason. He pulled the phone out of Lorenzo's pocket, answered, then hung up. "We're gone. Cops are a block away. Sonny and Agent Marshall are with them. So are Ric and Alexis."

Sam left Jason's side and ran to the back. She came out with the gun tucked away and Kristina in her arms. "I'm not leaving her," she said forcefully, then crossed the room again. "Now, we can leave."

"I have a man waiting at the door," Lorenzo said. "Give him the… toys," he said, his eyes dancing over Kristina, "and then we go out with the recorder up. We start playing it the second they come towards us. Now, let's get out of here. The air in here stinks."


	12. Chapter 12

They were all extradicted back to Port Charles to sort everything out. The tape, the confessions… Well, as much of a confession as they were going to get. No one had any intention on revealing the true nature of Royal's disappearance, and no one had yet to ask. As far as those involved could see, Ric and Agent Marshall were content with the idea that he skipped town.

The only one of the wanted quartet not in the Port Charles police station was Jason. He'd been taken to a local hospital, then transported by helicopter to General Hospital when he was stable. By that time, the other three had been in the police station for hours. Pretty soon, the sun would be coming up, and everyone was tired. However, the ordeal was far from over.

John Durant sat handcuffed in the interrogation room. As Carly and Sam looked on from outside the room, they both wondered what he would say. He didn't know anything about Royal, so he couldn't get them there, but he could still try to say something else. He could claim that the tape had been doctored, possibly put together before they'd even arrived at his place in Manhattan. Though, they were sure anything to the contrary of the truth would be contradicted by the Russian nanny he'd hired to take care of Kristina. She had already been visited by INS in Manhattan, and the threat of deportation was strong and real.

"I don't like this," Carly muttered. She wasn't cuffed, but neither was she free to go. For the time being, with enough evidence against John, she and Sam were unchained in the outer area of the police station, but they weren't completely off the hook yet. There was still that whole aiding and abetting thing, as Sam was under police custody at the time she was taken away. "Where did they take Lorenzo?"

Sam sighed and shook her head. She wished she could make a move without the police getting twitchy. Though there had been no weapons found on them or in the vicinity of the apartment, Durant had been quick to claim that they'd come in with guns blazing. Every time she moved, some rookie cop's hand went to the butt of his gun. "I think Mac took him out of the room. The two of us sitting together is bad enough. They don't want Alcazar telling us what to say."

Carly groaned. "They're going to try and railroad him, I know it. Somehow, this is all going to end up Lorenzo's fault, and it's not." She turned her head towards Sam and sighed. "It's mine," she said softly.

"Carly…"

"I brought him here, Sam. Momma told me to leave it alone, but I wouldn't listen. In the middle of being a hypocrite, I brought this down on everybody." She leaned back in her chair and threw her head back. "Right now, I wish my father had really been just some john. At least then… Then, this wouldn't have happened."

"You can't blame yourself for this, Carly. How could you have known the lengths Durant would go?" Sam turned in her chair, slowly so as not to freak out the newbies in blue. "He was here to take down Sonny, and as much as you hated that he was trying to do that…" She shook her head. "If you didn't blame yourself for that, you shouldn't blame yourself for Kristina."

"Then who do I blame, huh? Because somebody's at fault, and it's not just John. Somebody else is behind whatever trauma this starts in that little girl's life. What if she can't forget this? What if it haunts her?"

"First of all," Sam told her, "she's young enough and she wasn't hurt. She'll be able to put it behind her and it'll be like nothing ever happened. And after that…" Sam ran her hand through her hair and a jerk from across the room made her eyes roll. She looked at the cop and said, "I know I've got a lot of hair, but it's not enough to hide a weapon in." She muttered, "Moron," under her breath, then turned back to Carly. "That guy is really starting to piss me off."

Carly chuckled. "Yeah, he's jumpy." She smirked. "Almost makes me miss Taggert. At least he didn't act afraid of small woman. Though, he probably would have been afraid of Faith Roscoe. That woman…"

"Crazier than I am," she said with a snorted laugh. Her head shook slightly from side to side, then Sam let out a heavy breath. Turned to the side, she put her arm up on the back of the chair and rested her head in her hand. "Right now, Carly, you just have to think about what you want to do. Stop blaming yourself, because it's not your fault. The cops are gonna put Durant away, and that part of our lives will be over."

"But there's so much more," Carly said with a groan. "How about I go back to placing blame? It's easier. And even better, I can go back to blaming you for everything. Now that would be the start of getting us back to where we were."

"Tell me about it." Sam groaned, but there was a laugh underneath. "Well, if it weren't for me and my baby…" Sam paused for a moment, and her eyes dropped. She wondered how long it would feel that way when she remotely mentioned her daughter. How long would it be until she could think of her, maybe even say her name, without forcing back the urge to cry. She shook her head and sighed, then popped her head back up. "Enough of that. If it weren't for us, then Jason wouldn't have been brought into the middle of all of this."

"Sam…" Carly sighed and shook her head. Before all of this, she would have been able to easily get back into the blame game. Of course, before all of this, she wouldn't have been sitting with Sam in the PCPD, having a conversation, either. "Okay, if it weren't for you, Jason wouldn't have been involved, and Lorenzo and I wouldn't have gotten involved."

"And if Jason hadn't been shot and you and Alcazar weren't involved, then Sonny wouldn't have lost his mind."

"And I wouldn't be wondering what the hell I'm supposed to be doing right now, and when it's all over." Carly sighed heavily. She closed her eyes for a moment, then reopened them and stared off, facing away from Sam. She stared at the door to the interrogation room. "I can't just go back to him, not when I've seen what he can do. But, do I let John win? I mean, he did this so I would stay away from Sonny."

"It doesn't matter what Durant wanted, Carly. It only matters what you think is right for yourself." Sam shrugged. "Sonny… I don't know. When you're desperate, I think you show what you're really made of and what he's made of…"

"Is exactly what his step-father was made of. He doesn't know how to control his anger. I mean, he's thrown things, ya know? He's shouted and more than once, I was afraid, but then I always figured, he'd never hurt me."

"Alcazar gets mad, too, Carly. You told me that he totally trashed his stateroom."

"But the difference is that he never does it in front of me. He may rage and vent, but he won't show it to me. He only shows me the calm man, the loving man… the man who just wants me to be happy. And ya know, even if I didn't go to him, I think he would be happy as long as I wasn't in danger."

Sam sat forward and dug her elbows into her knees. She folded her hands and rested her chin on the back, just below her wrists. "Are you in love with him, Carly?" She turned her head to the side, resting her cheek against her hands. Her hair fell to the side. "Are you in love with him and finally realizing that you're not in love with Sonny, anymore?"

Carly looked to her and wondered just how this woman could know anything at all about her. How she could see the truth inside, even if she did her best to hide it. "I don't think I've been in love with Sonny for a long time, Sam," she said with a sigh. "I think I've been in love with the idea of him, with the man that I fell in love with a long time ago. And now… I don't know. I shouldn't love Lorenzo. He kidnapped me, he stalked me…"

"And he gave up his business so you wouldn't lose your children."

"Yeah, but he took it back," she told her with a smirk. "I realized that when I came back to the yacht the other night. I looked at all of those men, thought about what he'd accomplished, and I knew he couldn't have done it without his connections. And you know what? I really don't care. I mean… I've lived the life of a mobster's moll for so long, it's unreal. First Jason, then Sonny, now Lorenzo… I don't know what I'd do if that weren't my life."

"And you know that he'll keep you safe."

"Exactly!" Carly sat up quickly, and this time, she was the one that caused the rookie to jump. "Ya know, that guy is gonna make me slap him in a second." She sighed and shook her head. "But, it's true. I mean, I know that if I or my boys were ever really in danger, Lorenzo would leave again. I know that he loves me, and I think… I mean, I know… I'm in love with him."

"Then you need to tell that to Sonny, Carly. You need to tell him so you can both leave all of this behind. So you can get on with your life and being happy." Sam reached out tentatively, her fingers tapping Carly's wrist. "So you can move beyond this, and realize that unlike me, you don't have to go that far to find the guy who won't ever do this to you, again."

Carly closed her eyes and sighed. "How do I manage to do that without getting this done, again?"

"You do it with others around you. I mean, I don't know if you want me to go with you or not, but I will. And he can't keep the boys from you now, so if you don't want me, you can always go with a police escort. You do have custody of Michael and Morgan, so you can have somebody go with you to get them and tell him then."

"No… You can go." Carly looked at her and shrugged. "Why stop the adventure so early, huh?" She sighed again and shook her head. The rest of the conversation had been strange enough, but what she was about to do next was so painful she thought her head would explode and her body would cave in on itself. "Thanks, Sam."

She looked at her shocked, and wanted to make a joke out of it. Carly Corinthos, thanking someone other than Jason or Alcazar. That was a laugh and a half. But, she was so serious about it, so sincere… Sam couldn't bring herself to make light of the moment. "Carly… you don't have to."

"Yeah, I do," she said as she leaned back. Carly folded her arms and sighed. "I put a lot of trust in you tonight, and you came through. I'm so mad at John right now, but I know I wouldn't have been able to take it if I'd…" She sighed. "You know." Carly shrugged. "I don't show my gratitude often, and I'll probably never show it to you again, but for what it's worth. Thanks."

"You're welcome," she told her. "And thanks, yourself. I mean, you didn't have to help us, and I know you did it for Jason. But I'd like to believe that, at some point, it became about us, and not about Jason or Alcazar." She shook her head. "Whatever the reason, thanks. I appreciate it, and I won't forget it."

"You're welcome." Carly sighed and looked around the room. For as much as the police stayed around her, they should have been keeping an eye on Sonny. She was almost positive that he was planning a hit on Durant, and with everything slowing down, she knew that she didn't want him dead. She just wanted him behind bars. Royal, on the other hand…

Her thoughts stopped when Sam poked her in the side. Carly's head turned as Lorenzo came walking from the back, his wrists free, though he massaged his right with his left hand. He walked straight to Carly, and before he was halfway across the room, she was up and in his arms. She didn't care if the stupid guard jumped. She needed to hold him.

Sam watched them and wished that Jason were there. She wanted to hold him, show him that she was alright, and let him tell her that everything was going to be fine. She wanted the relief that she knew Carly felt the moment Alcazar embraced her. She wanted to get the hell out of the station so she could go to the hospital and stand watch beside Jason's bed.

"Alright, ladies." Ric Lansing came out of the interrogation room and he looked tense. Both were sure that he'd have rather been with Alexis right then, instead of stuck in the room with the man who'd kidnapped his step-daughter. "You're free to go. You, too, Alcazar."

Ric sighed and Mac Scorpio came up beside him. "Durant finally confessed." Mac shook his head. "I can't believe this, but you're free to go. We're dropping the existing charges against you."

"Because you don't want us to sue you," Sam said with a groan.

"Because we have every right to," Carly growled, "especially since that idiot FBI agent shot Jason, and you treated us all like we were criminals."

"At the time, Carly, you were," Ric told her. "Look, I'm not going to apologize for Agent Marshall because I'm not her boss. Talk to the feds about her. And I won't apologize for the way we handled things, because at the time, our only and most viable suspect was Sam. So, you can be angry, but you're better off just being glad. Be glad you have your lives back."

Carly looked at him, sighed, then looked at Lorenzo. "I hate when other people are right besides me." She groaned and looked at Sam. "Are you still up for that trip?" Sam nodded and she turned to Lorenzo. "One more thing, I swear. But… it's something I have to do."

"With her," he said softly.

"Yeah," she told him. Carly bit her bottom lip, then rose her hand to his face, cupping his cheek. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his touch. Lorenzo turned his face in and kissed her palm, then she opened her eyes again. "I'm coming to you when this is over, Lorenzo. I'm going to get the boys and then…" She shrugged. "I don't know. I think I'll go to Momma, go to the Brownstone. I'll call you when I get there because we need to talk."

"You really need to talk," Sam muttered. Carly shot her a look and she shrugged. "What? I'm just sayin'." She sighed. "Fine, have your moments. I'll do the driving, because I'm not getting in a car again with you behind the wheel. I'll drop you all off and then go to the hospital. I'll let Jason know you're okay."

"Uh huh." Carly rolled her eyes. "And for the record, you almost crashed us twice. You don't drive any better than I do. You just happen to have a license." She snorted, then turned back to Lorenzo. "If I call… will you come?"

"Carly, you should know by now that I'll always come when you call." He bent over and kissed her lightly. His lips were loose, and her bottom lip slipped between his. He pulled back, tugging lightly on her lip, before looking down at her with a half-smile. "I wish you'd let me go with you but… if you think this is best, then I'll wait for your call."

"Thank you." She smiled at him, touched his face again, then turned to Sam. "Alright, let's get this over with. And no smart ass comments from you in the car, either."

"Oh, but Carly, it's so fun." Sam snickered and turned to walk out. The knowledge of freedom made her feel lighter, as though she were close to floating. Things were nowhere near as great as her release made them seem, but for the time being, she'd just accept them. There was too much more to come that night. And she thought Carly felt the same. "Okay, how about this? Love-life mockery is off-limits, but I'm free to make fun of your driving. Come on, Carly, you can't deny me that. It's just way too easy."


	13. Chapter 13

**_Author's Notes: Thanks everyone for all of the comments. I'm glad that so many of you have enjoyed this story and the friendship that has developed between Carly and Sam. I did take the request/note that asked for a small Jason and Lorenzo scene, showing their understanding. This story will probably be over in another couple of parts, but until then, I hope you continue to enjoy._**

**_

* * *

_**"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Sam had asked that question three times already. Though they were already idling outside of Sonny's property, a fourth time didn't hurt anything. They hadn't gone inside the gates yet, so they could still turn around. "I mean, maybe we should just call Alcazar." 

Carly sighed and shook her head. "If I bring Lorenzo here, everything will just go straight to hell. There's no way he's going to let me take the boys without a fight, and then we all just might end up back at the station."

"I wish Jason were here." Sam groaned as she inched the car forward. "Of course, Sonny did pull a gun on him just a few days ago, so I don't know how much that would help."

"Jason's got his own issues with Sonny, and right now wouldn't be the time to handle things. Think about it, Sam. Jason's upset, and if he were to go in there upset… Again, we might all end up at the police station."

Sam sighed. "I guess you're right." Her eyes widened suddenly, and her lips clamped shut. "I didn't say that," she spat out quickly, her hands tightening on the wheel. "You did not hear that."

"Oh, yes I did, and believe me, it'll be brought back up later." A small smile curved Carly's lips, but fell away as they grew closer to the mansion. A sense of foreboding fell over her, wrapping her in a blanket of dread. Her hands twisted in her lap, her fingers clenched tightly together.

With the mansion actually in view, she was starting to think that maybe she should have brought someone with her. Not Lorenzo, because that would have ended too badly, but someone. Maybe she should have brought her mother. Bobbie had been angry enough with Sonny for not telling her that Carly had returned that she would have stood with her when she took her kids. She might have even talked Luke into going with them. Carly wasn't liked by her uncle, but they still had the same blood, and if Bobbie told him to go, then he would have gone.

Or maybe she could have brought a police officer. She did have custody of the boys, and that hadn't been revoked. In fact, finding Kristina and risking her life could have just made her case stronger if Sonny chose to fight it. Carly could have brought any officer with her, claiming knowledge that Sonny wouldn't just hand over the boys. It wasn't too late to call the police.

"Do you think Agent Marshall is there?" Sam looked at Carly as she pulled the car to a stop in the drive. She parked the car, then let her fingers hover over the ignition. "I mean… This was her case, right? And as a federal officer, she can't be party to Sonny breaking the law, right? Keeping the boys would be breaking the law."

"If she's there, I doubt she'll be able to do anything." Carly shrugged. "Though, she did shoot Jason, so we could probably use that against her. That woman… She's got an itchy trigger finger." Carly sighed. "Honestly, we're just lucky that he brought everyone back home tonight. Well, as much as everyone as he could. Ya know, I've never been Alexis's friend, nowhere near a fan, but… I actually hope she manages to keep Kristina away from Sonny."

"Are you kidding me?" Sam snorted a laugh. "Can he really pay off that many people to ignore the fact that Kristina was taken from his house, because of a grudge against him?"

"You have no idea what Sonny can buy." Carly rolled her eyes. She reached out and grabbed the handle of the door. "Ya know, the longer we sit in this car, the harder it's going to be to go inside."

"I know. I'm hoping you'll change your mind and call the cops." Sam groaned and leaned forward. Her head hit the steering wheel and she sighed again. "This isn't going to be easy. We both know that. He's gonna fight you every step of the way and if you think what he did to your wrists is bad…"

"I know, I know," Carly muttered. "But, I've gotta hope that there's enough decency in him not to do it again. And not because I don't want to face that this is really the end, either. I know that already." She sighed and turned towards Sam. "I just… I may not be in love with him, anymore, but I don't hate him. I want the kids away from him because they're all safer that way, not because I want him to suffer. I just don't want him to have to live with anymore than what he's already done. I may not want to be with him, but that doesn't mean I want him to go crazy either, because he turned out like his step-father."

Sam sat back and rolled her head against the headrest. She let her eyes settle on Carly and sighed. She was way too nice to Sonny. For all the grudges that she held on a regular basis, this is one that she shouldn't have let go. She should have wanted him to pay. Sam knew that she certainly would have, if it had been her. As it were, Sonny had wanted to take her baby away from her before the little girl was even born. And here he was, practically holding Michael and Morgan hostage and yet, Carly was still thinking about his well-being.

"Well, I'm not saying you're right this time, because you're not. You should want him to suffer, but it's your decision. If you can make him see that this is best, then fine. If not…" She sighed and leaned over, her body crossing Carly's. She opened the glove compartment and the inside light shown on a small Deringer. "Jason always keeps one in this car. That's why I had the taxi drop us off to get it instead of just coming here."

Sam pulled the gun out and put it in her pocket. She looked to Carly and expected to see surprise, or maybe even shock. She didn't see any of that, though. She only saw resignation, maybe a little determination. She was ready to do this, and if it came to extreme measures, then they'd just have to do it.

Sam sighed and opened her door. "Let's go and get this over with. It's really early, and it'll be hell enough getting the boys out of bed. The sooner we get them, the sooner you can put them to bed."

"And the sooner we can all get back to some kind of normal life."

* * *

Jason felt someone hovering over him and he knew it wasn't Sam. The shadow was too large. His eyes opened and he groaned. "I thought we were done seeing each other." He rolled his eyes but kept them open. In a hospital, no weapons around, he wasn't about to close his eyes against anyone. Granted, common sense told him that after what had happened, Lorenzo Alcazar wasn't going to do anything to him. But, old habits die hard, and trust issues weren't that easily overcome. "What do you want, Alcazar?" 

"In an attempt to be polite, I thought I would tell you that Carly and Sam have both been released. As I speak, they're on their way to pick up the boys, and then Carly will be going to her mother's brownstone."

Jason looked up at him with as much shock as he could muster through his tire. "Now, I'm going to say something you were real quick to say to me. You just let them go alone!"

Lorenzo sighed and shook his head. "I offered to go, but Carly thought it was a bad idea. I don't know about you, Morgan, but I've learned something about both of these women in the past few days. I've learned that they know how to handle themselves." He paused, then added, "And each other."

While his instant reaction had been outrage and worry, Jason had to admit that a certain calm had started to befall him when he really thought about Sam and Carly going somewhere together. He wouldn't say it out loud, definitely not to Alcazar, but something told him that they might be able to handle it without problem. The two had proven themselves very trusting of one another. He really believed that no one other than Sam would have been able to take that gun from Carly's hand.

But, he still didn't like the idea of them being alone with Sonny. He'd known that Carly would want to see her sons soon, but he had hoped that he got the chance to see Sonny before she did. He'd wanted to be the one who brought the boys to her, because after all that had happened…

_I swore that Michael would always be safe, _he thought to himself. _I swore that I'd never let anything bad happen to him. I'd keep him safe and… He's just not safe with Sonny. I have to face that fact. I have to face it and learn to live with it._

"You need to know something, Alcazar." Jason sighed and his head lolled from side to side before he came back to center. "Just because Sam and Carly have found some kind of bond, don't think that we're going to do the same. I have absolutely no desire to be your friend."

Lorenzo smirked. "Well, what do you know? We agree on something." He folded his arms and looked down at Jason, letting the slight humor fall from his face. "Believe me, I have no intention to ever call you for dinner. Unless, of course, Carly wants to have you over, and then I'll just have to put up with you."

Jason groaned. "I'm not an idiot, Alcazar, so I know that Carly's made a choice. It's one that I don't agree with, and I'd rather she have neither of you right now, but if she thinks she can trust you…"

"I think I've shown that you can all trust me. A lot more, apparently, than you can trust Corinthos."

Jason ignored the dig verbally, but the narrowing of his eyes said enough. "Just remember this, Alcazar. If I'm ready to rage all over Sonny for what he did to Carly, just think about what I'll do to you if you ever hurt her."

"Believe what you want, Morgan, but I am nothing like your boss. Carly's perfectly safe with me. And she'll never have to worry about losing her children with me. Corinthos isn't the only one that has pull with the legal system."

The two stared at one another, both holding hard glares. Jason didn't like being around Alcazar, and he guessed that the man felt the same. They would tolerate each other for the sakes of Carly and Sam, but that was it. Jason would never be his ally, and Lorenzo would never ask him for favors.

"I think we have an understanding," Jason said, his teeth clenched.

"Yeah," Lorenzo told him, "we do. And now, I'll take my leave and wait for Carly's call. You can expect your girlfriend when she and Carly have finished their business."

Lorenzo turned and walked out of the room, and Jason wished he had something nearby to throw at him. Something that, hopefully, would end him up in a room down the hall. He'd been forced to trust him, forced to stand beside him in a tough spot, but nothing was ever going to make him like the man.

* * *

"I have custody," Carly said firmly, "and I'm taking my boys with me." She moved to the side, trying to get around Sonny. He stood on the stairs, his arms braced on either side. His grip on the banister, made the color in his knuckles bleed away. "Dammit, Sonny, they're my children!" 

"They're mine!" He growled at her, sneered. "Do you think I'm letting you take my children so you can go play house with Alcazar? Not a chance in hell!"

"You can't stop me! I have custodial rights, Sonny. Michael and Morgan live with me!" She moved to the side and tried to push past Sonny's arm, but he wouldn't move. "Michael!" She called up, hoping that her little boy was still awake. It seemed that every time something went on that he shouldn't have seen, Michael was around. "Michael!"

"Stop it, Carly!" She pushed against him and Sonny reached out, grabbing her arms. "You're not getting them! Your father caused this! It's your fault Kristina was taken! I already lost her because of you! I'm not losing the boys, either!"

"It's not my fault!" She pulled back, trying to jerk away from him, but he held her tightly. "John took her because of you, and Alexis took her away from you because you're dangerous!" She twisted more. "Let me go, Sonny! You're hurting me!"

"I'll let you go when you're out of my house!" He walked her off the stairs, dragging her towards the door. Sam stood at the door, her hands in her pockets. "Get out of my way. Get the hell out of my house."

"Jesus, Sonny, where's your gratitude, huh?" Sam sighed. "Carly and I are the ones who found Kristina. And you should be apologizing, instead of showing yourself even more unfit. You're a horrible parent, Sonny, and if you're what she had to look forward to, I'm glad that Lila's gone."

The hand that shot out, connecting with her face was unexpected. Sam fell to the side, thrown to her knees. As Carly watched, it was as though Sam moved in slow motion. The backhanded slap was quick, but the fall… it took forever. Carly wrenched out of Sonny's grip and ran over to Sam. She went to drop down, but Sam was already pushing herself up to her feet. Her eyes glistened and a line of blood coursed down from the corner of her mouth.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Sonny!" Carly took Sam's arm, holding her up steadily. "Look at yourself! You're not better than your step-father! And you really think I'd leave my children here with you? Do you think anyone would leave their children with you?"

"Carly…" Sonny's eyes were wide, shocked. He looked to Sam and said, "I didn't…"

"You didn't mean to?" Carly finished for him. "Isn't that what they all say? Believe me, Sonny, you meant it. Every hurtful thing you do, you always mean it. Michael's a willful boy. What happens when he talks back to you, huh? What's going to happen when he says something you don't like? Are you going to hit him, too?"

"I'd never hit him, Carly, you know that!"

"And I never thought you'd raise your hand to a woman, either, but you did. Look at her, Sonny! Better yet…" She released Sam and threw off her coat. She forced her sleeves up and shoved her arms towards Sonny. Her wrists and arms were bruised with a bright green. "Look at what you did to me! You claim to love me, but you did this, Sonny. And there's no telling what my arms will look like once the new bruises set in."

Sonny stuttered over his words and Carly continued to scream at him. They were both too preoccupied to notice Sam stepping to the side. Neither saw her pull the gun from her pocket. No one even saw her again until she screamed, "Carly!" Both heads turned towards her and she was holding the gun steady, aiming at Sonny. "Go upstairs and get the boys."

"Sam…"

"Carly, go!"

She hesitated, her eyes weighing down on Sam heavily, but she finally walked away. She eased past Sonny and moved to the bottom of the stairs. She turned back, almost afraid to leave them alone. But her boys were upstairs. They needed her. Right then, they needed her more than Sam would. If she needed her, she'd have said something.

When Carly was halfway up the stairs, Sam screamed, "You bastard!" She held the gun as steady as she could, though her arms were shaking. "You're just like all the rest of them. You use us, and you beat us, and when you're through with us, you throw us to the side."

"Sam…"

"Shut up!" She took in a deep breath, then swallowed hard. "Don't you say a word! I'm not…" She gulped again. "I'm not giving you the chance to say what they always say to me. What you've always said to everybody. I've been so… so blind to you. We all have been, but now… You're not doing it anymore, Sonny. Not to me, or Carly, or anybody else."

"Sam, just calm down." Sonny's arms were up, out to the sides. "Give me the gun, and…"

"And what? You'll let us walk out of here with the kids?" She barked a bitter laugh. "Not likely. You'll just have us both carried out of this house, and Carly will never see her children again. But now…" Her laugh was maniacal, almost sadistic. "Oh, now, it's you that'll never see them again, any of them. Between Carly's bruises and my face… You've done yourself in, Sonny."

"What would Jason think about this, huh? Jason…"

"Jason loves me! And he loves Carly. And more than anyone else, he loves Michael. He won't let you do this to me. Or Morgan or Kristina. Jason knows what you are now, Sonny." As her words went on, her voice got thick. She was trying not to cry, trying to stay in control. "He knows what you are, and he'll never forgive you for this. You'll never see those children again, Sonny, and if you do see them, it'll be with supervision. And you know what? They're better off. Michael was better off with Jason as his father."

"How the hell do you know anything?" The calm he'd tried to fake left in an instant. "You weren't even here!"

"But, I've heard. I know, and he was better off. Kristina will be better off thinking of Ric as her father. And Morgan… Lorenzo Alcazar is a better man than you. I can say that and more, because I have the power. And don't think you can get to me before I shoot, because you can't. I'll shoot you, Sonny. I let so many men beat me and tell me it was my fault, but not now. Not anymore!"

Her arms were shaking and she didn't know if she should just shoot him and get it over with, or try to straighten her arms. If she showed too much weakness, he'd rush her, and she might not get a shot off. But he had to know… He had to know that he couldn't treat people like this. He couldn't rule the world and step on everyone that came along after him.

"Sam!" She heard Carly call to her, but she couldn't take her eyes off of Sonny. "Sam, I have the boys." Sam stopped and shook her head. She was trying to tell her something. "I have the boys and they're right here with me, Sam. Michael's awake, and we're going to be at the door really soon."

Put the gun down, that's what it meant. Put the gun down because, no matter what else Sonny would do, he wouldn't turn his own son against him. He wouldn't let Michael see him hit Carly or Sam. So, it was safe to put the gun down. Carly just couldn't say the words, because of the boys. She couldn't come over there and take it from her hands.

Sam lowered the gun slowly and slipped it into her pocket. Carly came rushing down the stairs, holding a dozing Morgan tightly against her. Michael followed, confused and sleepy. Sam reached out to him and after a nod from his mother, he took her hand. Sam pulled him to her side, holding his hand tightly. "What's going on?" he asked, wiping his eyes. "Dad?"

"It's okay, buddy," Sonny told him. "You'll be back in bed, soon."

"We're going to stay with Grandma," Carly told him. She took her hand from the back of Morgan's head and grabbed Sam's arm. Her hand was still in her pocket. She was still holding the gun. "Come on, Sam. Let's get the boys out of here. You don't want me to drive them, do you? I'd likely crash us and I really don't want something else for you to mock."

Sam reluctantly turned away from Sonny and realized that she was moving. Carly was pulling her backwards, carefully moving her to the foyer, soon to the outside. Sam looked at her and wondered if she'd done this for her, or for herself. Before, Carly had made her promise. She'd made it evident in the beginning that she didn't want to do it. But, Sam hadn't said anything like that. Part of her even wanted to shoot Sonny. But something bigger… Carly just knew that she didn't want to do it. She knew that she had to do what Sam had done for her earlier.

"Sam, what happened to your face?"

She looked down at Michael, then up at Carly. She looked back down to the boy and said, "It's nothing. I just… You know we found Kristina right?" He nodded. "Well, wouldn't you know it. I'm… I'm a klutz and I fell. Your mom'll be making fun of it for years."

"Yeah, I will." Carly's voice was shaky, but she tried to make herself seem call. At the car, she put Michael in the back, then went to the front, still holding Morgan. She slid into the passenger side and Sam slid in behind the wheel.

"Okay, we're off to see your Grandma." Sam had to work hard to keep her voice steady. As it were, she lost the battle with her hands and they trembled almost uncontrollably against the steering wheel. She took in deep breaths, but nothing calmed her. Nothing, until Carly put a hand on her arm. Sam turned to her, tears streaming her face. "Thanks," she said softly. Carly nodded. Her hand slid from Sam's arm, her head turned back to the windshield, and she stared out the front, past Morgan's head.

Sonny stood on the steps, watching as his children were taken away. Between Carly's touch and the look on his face… Sam could see him clearly when she turned on the car and the headlights hit him. She could steady herself. She could control herself long enough to drop off Carly and the boys, then go see Jason at the hospital. Until she reached Jason, she could be strong. She thought that Carly was being strong, too, just until she'd put her children to bed and called Lorenzo Alcazar to hold her. They were both being strong for the boys, and they could hold it as long as necessary. "We'll be fine," she muttered as she pulled out of the drive, heading away from the dark mansion. "We'll all be just fine."


	14. Chapter 14

They were arguing inside, and Sam didn't want to go in. It would have been hard enough if Jason were alone, but knowing that Sonny was just behind that door made it all the harder. She had no idea how long Sonny had been in there, or what he'd told him. From what she could hear, they were discussing Carly, which made her believe that Sonny hadn't told him about the final altercation at the mansion. 

If Jason didn't already know, going into his room with her lip and cheek swollen wasn't going to make this easy. When she got out of the car, Sam had taken one last look at her face. It wasn't bad, not as bad as she'd seen it in the past. It could have been a lot worse. Her cheek was red and aching, but she didn't think it would bruise. The cut inside her lip stung, but it would heal. Overall, it felt worse than it looked, and she thought maybe that was something.

Sam swallowed hard and gripped the doorknob. The yelling grew louder, and if they didn't stop soon, someone would come inside. For a moment, Sam wondered if she should have called someone. Not Carly, because she'd been through enough. She deserved whatever downtime she was currently getting care of Alcazar. But, maybe an orderly would have been helpful, or maybe one of the doctors. Someone in this hospital had to be close enough to the Quartermaines to give a damn if Sam said Jason's room needed to be cleared.

But, then again, that could just lead to someone actually calling Monica, Alan, or any of a dozen Quartermaines. Jason would probably have preferred to just fight it out with Sonny as opposed to dealing with any of them. If she wasn't going to call Carly, there just wasn't anyone else for her to call. There was only Sam, and she had to get in there and "do the do," as she'd once heard in a movie.

Taking a deep breath, Sam pushed the door open and was instantly hit by a barrage of sound. "…you do, Sonny! You don't own the world!"

"You gave Carly and Michael to me. What is it you told me? You gave me your family to take care of them. So why won't you help me take care of them!"

"Because you hurt them! How many times do we have to go over this?" Jason groaned and eyes closed. He tried to lower his voice and said, "You're trying to turn this entire thing into betrayal against you. I sided with Sam, I sided with your enemy, I sided with everyone but you." As he spoke, his voice rose again. "But, you're the one that betrayed me, Sonny! You betrayed us all, and you keep doing it! You don't care!"

"Who have I betrayed, Jason? I was trying to fight for my daughter!"

"And in the process, you said the hell with the rest of us! I'll give you the stuff before. You were worried about Kristina, we all were. But dammit, Sonny, all I asked you to do was trust me! Listen to me! But, no. Of all people, I had to trust Alcazar because you wouldn't trust me! Sam and Carly risked their lives to find Kristina and all you could do is hurt Carly! I'm not going to help you do it, anymore! I'm not helping you…"

He stopped, not because he couldn't go on, but because his eyes caught Sam as she slid inside the room and walked far around Sonny. She could feel Jason's eyes on her, most specifically on her face. Her hand rose absently to her cheek and she winced. She crossed the room to Jason and took his outstretched hand.

"Sam…" His hand rose and he brushed her cheek. She winced again and his head whipped around to Sonny. "What the hell did you do to her?"

"Jason, it was an accident." Sonny twitched nervously. His movements reminded Sam of how he'd been when she was being interrogated about Kristina. He was lost, and if her cheek didn't sting, if she didn't remember the look on his face when he'd held Carly, when he'd slapped her, she would have felt sorry for him. "I was trying ot get Carly out of the house…"

"So you hit her?" This time, he didn't scream. His voice caught in his throat and his eyes glistened. He looked up at Sam with such apology in his eyes, such pain. "I can't believe you'd do this, Sonny. I've seen you…" He swallowed thickly and turned back to Sonny. "I've seen you throw women away, and it was never my place to say anything. No matter what I feel about any of them… You've thrown Carly away more times than I can count and expected her to wait for you. You threw Brenda away how many times? God, Sonny, you sent me into her wedding to tell her it's been a nice ride. You threw Sam away and then wanted to use her as an incubator. You even threw your own sister away."

"Jason, you don't have to say this," Sam told him. She tried to pull away, but he kept a tight grip on her arm. "Jason…"

"I let you do these things, because I didn't want to make a choice. I didn't want to make a decision that would hurt. You threw so many away, and others left you, but I wasn't turning away. We were like brothers. But, dammit, Sonny… Carly? Sam? Who are you going to hit next?"

"I didn't meant to do it, Jase." Sonny sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "I apologized, and I tried to make them understand."

"Apologies won't make the bruises go away, Sonny." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Get out."

"Jason…"

"Get out!"

He kept his eyes closed and Sam turned her back on Sonny. Neither of them moved until they both heard the door close. Until they both knew they were alone. Sam brushed Jason's cheek and his eyes opened slowly. She smiled at him, glad to see him and glad to be near him. The relief of his arrival in Manhattan was nothing compared to the weight that was lifted off of her chest when he looked up at her. It was the first time they'd been alone since she left Alcazar's yacht, and even this moment was tainted.

"Tell me what happened, Sam." She took a step back, but again, he held her near. "Please, Sam. I just… I just threw away the first friendship that I can remember. A ten year friendship. I need to hear exactly why."

When put that way, Sam wished she hadn't gone to the hospital until the next day. By then, the puffiness would have resided. The sting would have been gone. Had Jason not seen her face, had they not been forced to explain what happened, he might have been able to salvage his friendship with Sonny. Jason loved her, and he loved Carly, but she knew how deeply he loved Sonny. He'd said it himself. They were brothers and now, after all of this, Sonny would be no better, if not worse, than she knew his biological brother to be in his eyes.

"Sam, please."

She sighed and her body shuddered. "Carly and I… We went to pick up the boys, and, as you can guess, Sonny wouldn't just give them up. He and Carly started arguing and, Jason, I just stood there watching. Maybe… I don't know. Maybe I was going to sneak past them and get upstairs and get the boys, but they moved to the stairs."

Sam paused and took in deep breaths. As she got closer and closer to the incident, her chest became heavier and heavier. She gripped Jason's hand with her free hand, and he let her arm go. She covered their hands with her other one and looked down at him. "I don't know, Jase. I mean, they were arguing and then he grabbed her, and it was just… I said something that, thinking back on it, I didn't mean, but right then, I really meant it."

"What did you say?"

"I said… I said that if he was what Lila had to look forward to, I was glad that she's gone." Tears dropped from her eyes and she rose one hand to wipe them away, then retook Jason's hands. "I'm not glad she's gone, Jason. Every day, I wish I had my little girl, but right then… I know him, I know his kind. I wouldn't want Lila to grow up with that as a father, and I knew that she would. Because he would fight us, ya know?"

"I'd have done whatever I could to protect her, Sam." Jason lifted his right hand to her cheek. It stung for only a second, then she rubbed her face in his palm. "I wouldn't have let him take her from us."

"I know," she said, her voice thick with tears. "I just… I said it, and he just… He hit me, and I fell and…" She sighed. "I had your gun, the one you keep in the glove box? I had the gun and before I knew it, I had it on him, and I just… I was ready to shoot him, Jason. I sent Carly to get the boys and if she hadn't come down when she did, I'd have shot him. She talked me down, without ever saying the word gun, because she had the boys, and…" She shook her head and barked a laugh that seemed close to a sob. "Can you believe it? Carly and I on some kind of psychic level? Carly and I needing each other?"

He smiled softly. "The most I was hoping for was that you two would pretend to get along when I was around."

"Yeah, well, I think we can handle that." She leaned down and brushed his lips with her own. Her eyelashes were wet and left minute damp lines on his cheekbones when her eyelids fluttered. Sam pulled back and rolled her lips. "I'm sorry, Jason. I know you don't want to hear it, and you say I don't have a reason to be sorry, but I got you into this. All of you, and I'm sorry for this."

"Don't be sorry," he told her. "If anybody should be sorry, it's Sonny. And me."

"Jase…"

"I wasn't there for you when you needed me. I wasn't there for any of you. I've always said that I wouldn't let the people I loved down, and that's exactly what I've done."

"Jason, you haven't let me down. If it weren't for you, I'd still be in jail and Durant would still have Kristina. You got me out of police custody, and that was asking more of you than I should have." Sam brushed her fingertips across his forehead. "This was something that you couldn't have taken care of, and in the end… I don't know. If Carly and I can keep up the level we've got now, then it was worth it for me. The question is, was it worth it for you?"

Jason continued to lightly run Sam's cheek. He pushed his fingers back into her hair, letting his fingers tap lightly against her scalp. She could still see the pain in his eyes, the ache of realization and choices made, but there was also love there. His eyes held enough love for her that his silence didn't make her afraid. Jason pulled her head down and lightly kissed her lips. Sam slid her hand from his forehead to his cheek as their lips lingered, her hair falling over both their faces.

Finally, they pulled apart, and Jason gave her the best smile that he could muster. It was small, but still genuine. "Yes," he said softly, "it was worth it."


	15. Chapter 15

**_Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for all of their great comments. This has been a very interesting story to write and I'm very glad that you all enjoyed the story. Alas, it has come to an end. However, I may write more of these people in the future. Sam and Carly make an interesting set of friends, so should I come up with some other adventure to get into, the story will be posted here. As for the time being, this is it, and thank you all, again, for reading and reviewing._**

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She could have stood in the doorway all night, and probably would have if Lorenzo hadn't come up behind her. His hands settled on her hips. His body bent and his chin came to rest on her shoulder. He turned his head in and, even through her hair, his lips were warm and comforting as they touched her cheek.

Carly leaned back, closed her eyes and sighed. She would have liked to think of this as the end of something huge, but really, it was only the beginning. Sonny would fight for the boys. He would do his best to wrench them from her care, especially with the knowledge that she had chosen Lorenzo over him. It would have been nice to think that the night's events were enough to make Sonny back off, but she knew him better than that. He would hurt anyone to get what he wanted, and what he wanted were the boys.

Her eyes opened slowly as Lorenzo backed her out of the room, and she peered into the darkness. She was going to have to get a bigger place, she knew that. Morgan and Michael were used to having their own rooms, and it wasn't fair to punish them just because she couldn't live with their father, anymore. They also needed a place they could play, because winter would eventually be over and they would need to go outside, get some fresh air.

The door remained open, but Carly allowed Lorenzo to take her from the bedroom and into the living room. He sat her down on the sofa, then took a seat beside her. The second he was down, Carly leaned her head onto his shoulder. As his arm wrapped around her, she was instantly comforted.

It was only when her life was put in danger that she realized just how safe she felt with Lorenzo. It was insane, and rightly so. The man had kidnapped her, stalked her… But he'd never actually hurt her. He'd hurt himself more times than he'd ever hurt Carly. He'd hurt others to keep her safe. He probably would go out and kill Sonny for everything he'd done if she hadn't impressed upon him the importance to let her handle it, to not murder the father of her children.

"You're more like your brother than you want people to believe," Carly said softly. The comment was so unnatural for her, so unwarranted at the moment, and yet so true. "You would have killed Sonny to keep me safe."

Lorenzo sighed and leaned his head back. "Luis was going to kill to keep his heart safe. Corinthos hadn't done to Brenda what he's done to you."

"Not physically, but…" She shrugged. "Don't get me wrong. Just because I can get along with Sam does not mean I'm about to wind up Brenda Barrett's best friend. She could show up in town tomorrow and I'd still hate her." She shrugged again. "I just thought… I mean, that's the core of you, Lorenzo. The savior, the protector… You would do anything to protect me from Sonny, from anyone. That's not so far from your brother. I don't know why that thought came to mind, and so I'm going to just let it leave my mind."

Carly was glad that Lorenzo didn't speak. Just another way that he was unlike Sonny. He could just let something drop. Actually, he was more like Jason, if she had to compare him to someone in her life. Lorenzo stood by her, understood when she did insane things. He would get her out of trouble because he cared about her, because he wanted her safe. She would never be on her own, she would never suffer more than necessary, because Lorenzo wouldn't allow that to happen.

Just like Jason…

Carly took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She was going to have to see him in the morning, tell him what had happened and what came out of it. She was sure he'd already gotten the information out of Sam, but he had to hear it from her. She also had to tell him that she really was done with this vendetta against Sam. It was pointless to keep up something so old, something that didn't matter anymore. More than that… It was pointless to try and claim that she hated her.

Carly wasn't sure exactly what her feelings were towards Sam, but she knew they weren't hatred. It was impossible for her to hate the woman, now. Honestly, she'd probably lost that hatred after the baby died, but now, after all they'd been through, she could actually admit it to herself. She'd trusted Sam with her life, her sanity, and in the end, Sam had done the exact same thing.

"I don't bond well with women," she said softly. Carly floated her hand over Lorenzo's body and intertwined her fingers with his. Their hands sat on his lap. "Let's be honest, I don't bond well with anybody." She snorted a laugh. "I'm not the bonding type, ya know?"

"You bonded with Courtney."

"That wasn't bonding," she said. "Well, maybe it was bonding but it wasn't… It wasn't like this. Courtney and I gave each other bad advice and we went shopping together, but… this was on a deeper level, Lorenzo. This was on some kind of, I don't know, inner and deep thing, ya know?"

"Under pressure, under fire…" Lorenzo turned his head in and kissed Carly's forehead. "You were forced to depend on one another, trust one another. That makes for strong bonds."

"It's unspoken. I mean, when we were at Sonny's…" She stopped for a moment, unsure if she should lay it all out for him. She could tell Jason, later, because she knew that he wouldn't do anything regrettable. He would be angry, but the love he held for Sonny would stop him from hurting him. Lorenzo, on the other hand…

"Carly?" She looked up at him and sighed. "Carly, what happened when you went to get the children?"

"I…" She sighed. Keeping secrets was no way to start a relationship. She'd done that too many times, and at every turn, it had failed. She had to be honest. "Sonny wasn't glad to see us, as you can imagine. He wasn't about to just let us take the kids. We argued, he grabbed my arms…" Lorenzo's body went stiff and she tightened the grip she held on his hand. "He didn't hurt me, but Sam ran over and said something she didn't mean and… He slapped her. Knocked her to the floor."

"That could have been you, Carly."

"I know that. And I know that before, I probably would have said that it wasn't, and that's all that matters, but it's not. He hit her, there was a little blood leaking from her lip, but… that's not the part that's the biggest. She sent me upstairs to get the boys. She was holding a gun on Sonny."

Carly paused and closed her eyes. She could see it all replay in her head all over again. The gun, the screaming, the words… She shook her head and opened her eyes. "It was like John and me all over again, Lorenzo, only we were reversed. And she actually wanted to shoot him. But, I couldn't say it. I just had to give her hints, and she understood. I just worked around the point, but she got it. I couldn't take the gun from her hands, and I would have. Not to save Sonny. Not even to save the boys from seeing it."

"You would have done it to save her."

"Yeah." She snorted another laugh. "Isn't that something? Me running to help Sam McCall, just to help her? I saved her from that Nico guy, sure, but that wasn't to save her. That was to save her baby, Sonny's baby. This was just… It was about her and me and it's just weird to think about. That Sam and I could possibly be friends. That we could ever be anything but enemies."

"A lot has happened in the past few days, Carly." Lorenzo turned towards her and slowly pulled his hand from hers. When his hands were free, he placed them on her sides and pulled her into his lap. A smile curved his lips as she curled against him, her head positioned perfectly in the dent of his shoulder. "You found friendships. I found… Well, you."

"Oh, what?" Carly laughed. "You're not going to tell me that you and Jason are the best of friends now and you'll be working together?"

"Not hardly." He rolled his eyes, then smirked. "But, we have an understanding. That's about all you'll get out of us, Carly. Now, though, things are different. Days ago, we'd have all been at one another's throats. I'd have still been chasing you. And now, you come to me willingly. You've come to accept this woman into Morgan's life. You've grown."

"And it took me years to do that. It took you coming into my life to do that." She sighed. "Jason would have let me be childish for the rest of my life. He doesn't really see a need for me to change. He loves me the way I am, and I love him for that. You love me the way I am, too, but you also encourage me to be more. To be a bigger person."

"And are you?"

"I'm a big enough person to admit that I needed Sam's help. I don't think it gets much bigger than that." She looked up at him as she pressed her hand to his cheek. Carly brought his head down to hers. Their lips brushed lightly. Lorenzo pulled back just for a second, just long enough to look into her eyes, then kissed her again, harder this time, with more meaning.

Carly finally pulled back from him, but let her hand continue to rest on his cheek. "I love you, Lorenzo. I didn't think I'd ever be able to say it and actually mean it, but I do. There are so many things that have to be done now. I have to make sure I don't lose the boys, I need to find a bigger place…" She shook her head, then smiled softly. "But, that's all stuff that have to wait until tomorrow. The one thing that I can do tonight, right now, is to tell you that I love you, I want to be with you, and there's nothing anyone can do that'll keep us apart. Not anymore." She pushed herself up, kissed him softly again, then said, "Not ever again."


End file.
